How to remove WIZOZ ransomware

WIZOZ ransomware is the intruder that blocks users' access to common files on the machine

WIZOZ ransomware is a cryptovirus that encodes files found on the system and asks for the payment that should be in exchange for the decryption tool or key. However, these people behind cryptocurrency extortion viruses are only focused on getting those payments from victims. There is no need to consider the payment, in this case, because the Void ransomware family that this piece belongs to is known for being not decryptable and criminals overall are not trustworthy. The infection starts with infiltration and immediately after that, the malware starts to encrypt pieces of images, documents, videos, other commonly used files and marks them using the pattern with email and .WIZOZ appendix. 

Ransomware and file-locking viruses, in particular, are not simple or easy to remove. Even though these infections are silent, the process of encryption requires skill. Especially successful encryption when files become useless. Specific algorithms are needed to achieve these goals.^[1] This is why hacker groups like that take some time to develop new versions when those are changed and upgraded each time. 

The threat provides a ransom message in the file Decrypt-info.txt that gets placed in various folders with encoded data and on the desktop, so the victim can find the instructions as soon as those files receive the .[whizoze@gmail.com][ID].WIZOZ marker and become unopenable. 

The ransom note informs people about possible next steps and the possibility to get your files by only paying the said sum to virus creators. The particular file with your unique victims' ID or private key needs to be sent to the creators, so the WIZOZ ransomware virus can be terminated and files restored. It is not advisable to contact these criminals via whizoze@gmail.com or whizoze@tutanota.com email addresses because you may receive additional malware instead of the decryption tool.

The message that threat actors sent to victims after the full WIZOZ ransomware actions:

All Your Files Has Been Encrypted

You Have to Pay to Get Your Files Back

1-Go to C:\ProgramData\ or in Your other Drives and send us prvkey*.txt.key file , * might be a number (like this : prvkey3.txt.key)

2-You can send some file little than 1mb for Decryption test to trust us But the test File should not contain valuable data

3-Payment should be with Bitcoin

4-Changing Windows without saving prvkey.txt.key file will cause permanete Data loss

Our Email:whizoze@gmail.com

in Case of no Answer:whizoze@tutanota.com

The prvkey file should be found on the machine, as this message states, but we do not recommend contacting malicious actors or even trying to get your files decrypted. Researchers^[2] always note that there is no need to trust people behind malicious apps like this since the main goal is profit.

Once files get encoded, the original code of the piece is changed, so you cannot even see the content of the said document, image, video file. It becomes difficult to determine which pieces are needed and which ones are not that important. However, file recovery is difficult and can be possible when you have proper backups of files or rely on third-party file restoring software.

Step 1. Removing the threat 

You need to terminate the virus, and the best way to do so is by choosing an anti-malware tool or security program capable of detecting^[3] the infection. If you try to restore files on the system where the .WIZOZ file virus is still working, you might get your files affected again and permanently lose those pieces.

Choosing a program like SpyHunterCombo Cleaner or MalwarebytesMalwarebytes can help fully clear all threats and terminate this ransomware, so you can be sure that the system is safe to restore your files on it. The removal process might cause some difficulty when your anti-malware tools cannot scan the system, so you might need to enter the safe mode or use the external device to launch the AV scan. However, anti-malware tools are the ones that can help with malware termination.

Also, once a system is damaged by malware, files in system folders get affected, and antivirus software cannot do anything about it, leaving it just the way it is. Consequently, users might experience performance, stability, and usability issues, to the point where a full Windows reinstallation is required.

We highly recommend using a system recovery tool FortectIntego. Not only can it fix virus damage after the infection, but it can also remove malware that has already broken into the system thanks to several engines used by the program. Besides, the application can also fix various Windows-related issues that are not caused by malware infections, for example, Blue Screen errors, freezes, registry errors, damaged DLLs, etc.

• Download the application by clicking on the link above
• Click on the ReimageRepair.exe
  
• If User Account Control (UAC) shows up, select Yes
• Press Install and wait till the program finishes the installation process
• The analysis of your machine will begin immediately
• Once complete, check the results – they will be listed in the Summary
• You can now click on each of the issues and fix them manually
• If you see many problems that you find difficult to fix, we recommend you purchase the license and fix them automatically.

By employing FortectIntego, you would not have to worry about future computer issues, as most of them could be fixed quickly by performing a full system scan at any time. Most importantly, you could avoid the tedious process of Windows reinstallation if things go very wrong for one reason or another.

Step 2. Restoring affected files

The ransomware marks files using .[whizoze@gmail.com][ID].WIZOZ pattern, so those files that the threat affects should be seen and indicated among other pieces on the machine. The data, once encrypted cannot be opened or used as normal, and that is the worst feature about ransomware-type threats.

People get more eager to pay sine that seems to be the only solution. However, if you but your data remains locked, it is a major data and money loss, so make sure to terminate the piece of malware. It is not easy to get the official decryption tool created, so there are no programs capable of doing that at the time of writing. 

You can save some of the files belonging to the WIZOZ ransomware virus, including those encoded pieces, and wait for the decryption tool release in the future. That is possible, but make sure to keep the data on an external drive and clean the machine fully to restore the needed functions.

As for the alternative methods that help with data restoring, we can offer limited tips. If WIZOZ ransomware affected your machine and you do not have any file copies placed on external drives or in the cloud storage, there are not many solutions for you.

Since many users do not prepare proper data backups prior to being attacked by ransomware, they might often lose access to their files permanently. Paying criminals is also very risky, as they might not fulfill the promises and never send back the required decryption tool.

While this might sound terrible, not all is lost – data recovery software might be able to help you in some situations (it highly depends on the encryption algorithm used, whether ransomware managed to complete the programmed tasks, etc.). Since there are thousands of different ransomware strains, it is immediately impossible to tell whether third-party software will work for you.

Therefore, we suggest trying regardless of which ransomware attacked your computer. Before you begin, several pointers are important while dealing with this situation:

• Since the encrypted data on your computer might permanently be damaged by security or data recovery software, you should first make backups of it – use a USB flash drive or another storage.
• Only attempt to recover your files using this method after you perform a scan with anti-malware software.

Install data recovery software

1. Download Data Recovery Pro.
2. Double-click the installer to launch it.
3. Follow on-screen instructions to install the software.
4. As soon as you press Finish, you can use the app.
5. Select Everything or pick individual folders where you want the files to be recovered from.
6. Press Next.
7. At the bottom, enable Deep scan and pick which Disks you want to be scanned.
8. Press Scan and wait till it is complete.
9. You can now pick which folders/files to recover – don't forget you also have the option to search by the file name!
10. Press Recover to retrieve your files.

Malware like this is generally considered to be one of the most dangerous threats, so infection can result in some major issues when not treated in time. You need to remove the virus with all the pieces and related programs that can possibly affect the device's performance. The thorough system scan with SpyHunterCombo Cleaner or MalwarebytesMalwarebytes tools eliminates the WIZOZ ransomware virus and additional trojans, worms, other malware added silently.

Once you did that, virus damage can get cleared with system optimization tools and FortectIntego software. This is important if you want to avoid further damage and repeated infections. Since the threat spreads around using methods with malicious files and links, you can catch the threat like this again or even become a victim to the newer version in the same family as the WIZOZ ransomware virus. Be cautious online and keep security tools running to eliminate possible intruders in time.