How to remove Rombertik virus

Rombertik virus – a data-stealing infection that could affect anyone's browser

Rombertik is an extremely dangerous computer infection and it is categorized as spyware. It differs from other viruses because it has some unique attributes that others do not possess. According to cybersecurity researchers, malware is relatively complex, although its main goal remains the same as many other parasites of such type – to steal information.

First of all, this parasite is an infectious software that infects victim’s computer and steals personal information, such as:

• usernames and passwords,
• credit card information
• credit card codes.

Unlike many other spyware programs such as Dyre, Rombertik not only targets banking data, but all the information that is being processed by the web browser, regardless if it is Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, MS Edge, or Internet Explorer. Thus, even social media posts, phone numbers, and everything else entered during the web browsing sessions can be stolen by cybercriminals, as long as the virus is running in the background.

It collects such information by recording your keystrokes. This information is sent and stored on the remote and secret servers of the hackers. In most cases, the hackers aim and send this virus to business people to attain valuable information.

Unique features of the virus

Rombertik virus is not only designed to steal important data from the victim but is also developed not to be detected. The infection does not want to be analyzed by security researchers. It has anti-analysis and anti-debugging systems installed on it.

Before placing itself on the victim’s PC, it initiates a few checks to ensure that it was not detected by anti-virus programs on the user’s PC. If it receives a sign that you are trying to analyze your computer and detect it, it initiates automatic self-destruction.

Plus, it destroys the Master Boot Record (MBR). If it fails to do that, it decrypts all files on the victim’s computer using the RC4 key. In addition to that, it is known that this virus can destroy itself and the user’s computer system in about 20 seconds. To prevent this, shut down the machine, access Safe Mode as explained below, and perform a full system scan with MalwarebytesMalwarebytes or SpyHunterCombo Cleaner.

Once this virus deletes the whole system, it restarts the computer, and you will see such a message on your screen:

Carbon crack attempt, failed_

What is important is that the Rombertik virus is very deceptive and can be hardly found in your system. It places a 1264KB file when the harmful code part uses only 28KB. The other part of the code is just a deception to trick computer security tools into thinking that it is not a malicious file.

In addition, the virus writes bytes of junk data to the computer 960 million times. It can increase the data log by over 100GB, and obviously, such a big file is a challenge for anti-virus programs as it would take a very long time to analyze it. This is a very creative way to secure the virus from detection.

Ways to secure your PC and remove Rombertik

There are just a few simple methods to prevent your computer from such harmful malware.

1. Be careful, and do not wander through untrustworthy websites.
2. Do not open e-mails from the Junk and Spam folders; also do not open e-mails from people you do not know well.
3. Be careful when installing new programs to your computer – always choose Advanced or Custom installation modes and deselect every agreement to install an unfamiliar program.
4. Download and install SpyHunterCombo Cleaner, MalwarebytesMalwarebytes, or similar trustworthy anti-malware applications. Constantly update their virus databases and perform full system scans regularly.
5. Keep your Registry and other core system settings and files at bay by running system diagnostics with FortectIntego.