What kind of virus is AngleWare? How dangerous is it?
AngleWare virus first emerged in March 2017, and malware researchers[1] quickly identified it as one of numerous HiddenTear ransomware spin-offs[2]. The ransomware applies AES[3] cryptography on all files – it scans the computer thoroughly, checking every folder and every file stored in it. It searches for files that have certain file extensions, and if these match the ones from the virus’ target list, AngleWare immediately renders them useless. The virus is also programmed to add .AngleWare file extensions to encrypted data to help the victim realize how many files were corrupted. Once the first part of the attack – encryption – is finished, the ransomware creates a text file called READ_ME.txt, and puts such lines in it:
Your files has been encrypted by AngleWare
Pay 3BTC to my bitcoin address [redacted]
And send the proof to my email angledarknet@gmail.com
To put it simply, AngleWare developers plan to extort[4] money from computer users by taking their files hostage and asking for ransom in exchange for a decryption tool. They ask for a very large sum of money – at the moment of writing this article, 3 BTC were equal to 3090 USD. It goes without saying that you can do a lot of better things with such amount of money than giving them away to cyber criminals that might not even help you to restore your files. The provided email address can be blocked anytime soon, and then you won’t get an opportunity to decrypt your files even if you paid the enormous ransom to AngleWare creators. We strongly recommend you to remove AngleWare malware using the strongest anti-malware application that you have. If you haven’t installed an anti-malware software on your PC, consider installing one now. In our opinion, FortectIntego and SpyHunterCombo Cleaner are the best options at the moment. Both programs can easily handle AngleWare removal and get rid of all other suspicious programs in minutes. 
How did the ransomware enter my computer system?
There are many ways to distribute ransomware, and all of them are based on deception. Most of the time, bad people have no willingness to waste time creating sophisticated malware distribution[5] schemes, so they just rely on the good old malspam method. Spam has always been the main ransomware attack vector, because it proved to be the most efficient one, too. We strongly recommend users to stay clear of emails sent by obscure senders, and also carefully check if the email comes from an authoritative source. For example, you can get an email from someone who claims to be working at Amazon or PayPal, including a visually legitimate-looking message and some attachments. These attachments can be dubbed as invoices, reports, or archives that you need to immediately look over. However, these can appear to be masqueraded executive files or just contain malicious script activated via Macros. Therefore, we strongly recommend you to think twice before opening shady email attachments; otherwise, you will have to regret your decision to explore their content.
Remove AngleWare ransomware virus
If AngleWare virus attacked your PC and corrupted all of your precious files, do not rush to take hasty decisions. First of all, you must remember that paying the ransom is never a good idea. Cybercriminals can take your money and make off without providing you with a decryption tool. This way, you would lose over three grand just like you lost your files. To restore corrupted data, backups are needed, but you can also try using data recovery methods that we provided below the article. Make sure you precisely remove AngleWare before taking any further steps – the virus needs to be entirely gone before you start using data recovery tools. For AngleWare removal, we suggest using anti-malware programs because we believe that it is the safest, easiest and fastest way to get rid of any computer virus.
Was this guide helpful?
5 comments