ABOUT FILES! Ransomware

What is ABOUT FILES! Ransomware?

What ‘ABOUT FILES!’?

‘ABOUT FILES!’ is a serious notification that may show up on your computer’s screen out of nowhere. At the moment of writing, it has appeared only on Windows systems, but there is no guarantee that this virus is not capable of hijacking Mac OS X and other operating systems. If such warning has just showed up on your computer, the first thing that you should try is to open one of your files. It can be a video file, a photo, an important document and similar file. If you can’t reach any of them, it means that your computer is infected with the serious crypto-ransomware that has already managed to encrypt your files. Typically, this virus scans the system and blocks each of of predetermined files right after infiltrating it. In addition, it starts showing a huge warning message that asks to pay a ransom in exchange for the special decryption key. Unfortunately, but this decryption key is almost the only thing that can help you in this situation. You can try using such programs as R-Studio or Photorec but there is no guarantee that they will work for you. In this case, you should think about extra copies of your files..

However, you should still try to ignore a requirement, which is given in ‘ABOUT FILES!’ notification, because there is no guarantee that its owners will give you the decryption key that you need. Of course, each of these blocked files can be important for you because that’s the main aim of ‘ABOUT FILES!’ ransomware but it might be that you will receive a useless combination that won’t help you to recover your files. Typically, ‘ABOUT FILES!’ virus requires to pay 3 Bitcoins what is equal to $700. This amount of money should be payed within 72 hours. If you think that your PC has already been affected by this threat, you should run a full system scan with FortectIntego. If this threat has infected your Mac OS X, make sure you use Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus, which is compatible with Windows and Mac OS X.

How can ‘ABOUT FILES!’ infect my computer?

It is known that this ransomware, just like Cryptolocker, CTB Locker, CoinVault or Cryptowall, is spread with a help of trojans. Typically, they are hidden in spam and malicious attachments that are usually added to such messages for trying to trick users into downloading viruses straight to their computers. In order to stay safe, you should ignore all unknown senders and email messages that may appear in your email’s inbox. However, sometimes ABOUT FILES!’ is spread by trojan downloaders like Ajuxery and Shanabim, so you should also make sure that you have an updated anti-spyware installed on your computer. Otherwise, you may find out that each of your important files is blocked and that they only way to recover them is to buy bitcoins and pay the ransom. Please, consider using trustworthy backup solutions to avoid unwanted effects of ransomware viruses. If you think that ‘ABOUT FILES!’ ransomware has already infected your machine, you should try using this guide:

How to remove ‘ABOUT FILES!’ virus?

If you are looking at a huge message that claims that your files are blocked because of ransomware and that you need to pay a ransom for unblocking them, you should scan your computer with updated anti-spyware and remove malicious files. For that we recommend these applications: FortectIntego, SpyHunter 5Combo Cleaner, Malwarebytes. Mac OS X users should try Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus.

If you want to restore connection to your files, you should try using their backups or, if you don’t have them, try to run one of these file recovery tools as R-Studio or Photorec. Besides, Kaspersky Lab has also presented a tool for decrypting encrypted files, so you should also try Kaspesky Ransomware Decryptor. Please, do NOT pay a fine because this doesn’t guarantee that you will receive a key required for the decryption of your files.

We highly recommend thinking about the prevention of such infections like About files! ransomware. For that you can use previously mentioned programs. Besides, don’t forget to think about the immunity of your files and backup. For that you can use USB external hard drives, CDs, DVDs, or simply rely on online backups, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Flickr and other solutions. More information about backups can be found in this post: Why do I need backup and what options do I have for that?