How dangerous is Kovter virus?
Kovter virus is a seriously dangerous cyber threat which belongs to ransomware [1] category. It showed up in middle of May 2014 and, during this time, has been noticed in USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and other countries. Kovter ransomware was first set as a screenlocker which blocks the entire PC’s screen or the browser and shows a warning message telling the victim that he or she is under the radar of some governmental authority. The most known examples of screenlockers are Police virus, Ukash virus, FBI virus and other ransomware-type viruses. If you can’t remember any of them, you should know that in 2014 Kovter virus acted like that: it infiltrated computers, blocked them and displayed a huge warning message asking for its victim to pay the fine in exchange for his/hers illegal online activities. It is known that it relied on Winlocker component that was helping it to block the system. There was one new thing about this virus – it had an ability to check people’s browsing history and collect information about inappropriate/illegal sites visited by them.
Unfortunately, after several years ago, Kovter virus was updated [2]. At the moment of writing, this ransomware is capable of infiltrating computer without adding its files to registry. Once its files mshta.exe, and dw20.exe are launched, it encrypts victim’s files and starts displaying a ransom note asking him or her to pay the ransom. Typically, the ransom, which is asked by Kovter, varies from 0.5 to 1.5 bitcoin [3]. Also, just like the previous version of this virus, it displays such information as computer’s IP address, its location and other sensitive data about its affected PC system. Please, do NOT fall for Kovter and never pay the ransom as you can be left with nothing! If your computer is infected, you need to remove this ransomware from it without wasting your time. To remove Kovter ransomware from your computer, you can use FortectIntego. If your files are encrypted, you should try restoring them with the help of Dara recovery steps that are provided in the end of this article.
How can Kovter infect my computer?
Kovter is mostly spread using the same malicious methods that have been used for distributing other ransomware viruses. The main method used for spreading it relies on spam. If the victim is tricked into opening an infected email attachment, his or hers computer is infected with Kovter Trojan, which is known as Kovter.C virus. In order to avoid viruses like this one, you should always make sure that your computer is protected by the latest anti-spyware version. In addition to that, you should start following safe browsing practices [4] what means avoiding illegal websites, ignoring ads and emails from unknown senders. If Kovter virus manages to enter the system, it initiates previously mentioned activities and starts displaying a warning message. If you are infected with the older version of this ransomware, you will see a fake warning from the governmental authority, which is usually selected according to victim’s location. If your PC’s desktop is blocked by United States Department, Department of Justice, Police Central e-crime or similar authority, you should ignore the massage. You should do the same if you see a ransom note claiming that your files are encrypted and that you have to pay a ransom to decrypt them. No matter that it looks like the only way to encrypt your files, you should not pay the ransom. [5] In this case, you should perform Kovter virus removal from your computer. For that you can use a guide, which is given on the next page of this post. Unfortunately, but security experts haven’t released Kovter removal tool yet.
How to remove Kovter ransomware?
If your PC was infected by Kovter and you want to remove it, you should waste no time and scan it with FortectIntego, MalwarebytesMalwarebytes or other reputable anti-spyware. If you can’t download or launch any of these programs, follow these steps given below and unlock your computer first. Then you should be capable of performing Kovter removal on your computer. If you are dealing with the first version of this ransomware (screenlocker), you can use flash drive method or try to deny the Flash to disable your ransomware. Then, you need to scan the system with anti-spyware program to remove Kovter virus from the system completely.
Flash drive method to help you with screenlocker:
- Take another machine and use it to download FortectIntego or other reputable anti-malware program.
- Update the program and put into the USB drive or simple CD.
- In the meanwhile, reboot your infected machine to Safe Mode with command prompt and stick USB drive in it.
- Reboot computer infected with FBI System Failure virus once more and run a full system scan.
Denying Flash to disable Kovter ransomware
To disable ransomware and stop it from functioning, you need to go to Macromedia support and select “Deny”: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/help09.html. After doing that, run a full system scan with FortectIntego.
If these methods failed to help you, you should proceed to the following Kovter removal methods:
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