What Black Feather and HiddenTear ransomware have in common?
Black Feather virus, otherwise known as the new variant of the notorious HiddenTear ransomware, is a malicious cyber infection designed to bring fortune for its creators. Do not be deceived — the way such programs generate revenue is far from legal, though the hackers behind them may try to prove otherwise. HiddenTear was one of the first so-called educational open-source viruses on the market. Of course, the program’s code — which was initially intended to teach computer users about ransomware and how to protect themselves from it — was quickly put to evil use, and now tens if not hundreds of modified HiddenTear versions such as Black Feather are stealing data worldwide. What they have in common is the same source code, although it may as well be altered. Otherwise, these programs may demand different amounts of money for the data decryption as well as target different types of files. Black Feather malware, in particular, greets its victims with the following message which is featured in BLACK_FEATHER.txt document it drops on the infected computer:
Welcome to Black Feather.
Thank you for downloading our software.
All of your files have been encrypted with a secure 256-bit HASH.
This means you can no longer access your files without the decryption key.
You can decrypt your files by paying us 0.3 BTC, this will remove the encryption
and give you full access to your files again.
The note clearly indicates the hacker’s intentions. They do not even try to conceal the true purpose of the hijack and ask the victim to pay around 180 USD in Bitcoins for the private data decryption key. You should think very carefully about whether you should pay up or not. According to the users’ reports, these hackers should not be trusted. Even when you pay up, you may not be issued the recovery key or this key may simply not help you get your files back. It does not make any difference if you remove Black Feather from your computer or additionally lose money for the fake decryption key. Thus, we recommend employing virus-fighting utility, such as FortectIntego, which would banish this parasite from your computer once and for all.
We should also point out that the virus also changes file extensions. It ads “.blackfeather” next to all names of the documents it manages to encrypt and, this way, indicates that they are now inaccessible. There is no way to eliminate these extensions without decrypting them. Besides, the virus deletes Shadow Volume Copies as well, so that the user would not be able to recover them using specialized tools, such as ShadowExplorer. Generally speaking, there is no way of stepping out of this mess without unpleasant consequences. The least you can do is to take care of the successful Black Feather removal and make sure your future files are protected.
How do I protect the data on my computer?
One of the initial steps for the data protection is related to arming your system. An antivirus, anti-spyware, and anti-malware utilities can do quite a good job defending the system from malware, but there is never a 100% success guaranteed. Here is still a chance that the virus gets into your computer through some crack, and that is all that takes to lose your data to Black Feather. Thus, a more reliable option is to backup data to some external storage drive. You can use any platform you find convenient: USB, external hard drives, CD’s, DVD’s, etc. What is important is that you keep this device unplugged from your computer while you are not using it. Otherwise, the virus can easily get hold of the containing data and encrypt it as well.
Tips for the Black Feather removal:
Our experts have been investigating ransomware for quite some time now and have come up with several methods which have been proven successful regarding Black Feather removal and file recovery. Below, you will find a tutorial which will guide you through 2 basic methods that can be applied for the data recovery. Just before this guide, you will also see instructions related to the Black Feather virus elimination. Keep in mind that these instructions are only there to help you get rid of the lock screen and regain access to your desktop. To remove Black Feather properly, you will have to use some help from the side. Namely, you will have to obtain some automatic antivirus utility and scan your entire system with it. After you are completely certain the threat is gone, follow the previously mentioned recovery instructions or try some of these automatic tools: PhotoRec, R-Studio or Kaspersky virus-fighting utilities.
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