How to remove Covid-20 ransomware

Covid-20 ransomware – a cryptovirus demanding $1 million in BTC for a decryption tool

Covid-20 ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts all files on an infected computer in order to ask for a ransom for a decryption tool. Unlike many other ransomware, such as Qlkm, 2021, Ziggy, Atek, and others, the this threat prevents victims not only from accessing their files but from starting their devices.

As soon as Covid-20 file virus payload file accesses the system, it encrypts the files with a military-grade encryption algorithm and restarts the device. When the computer is booting up, a ransom note appears asking for $1 million worth of Bitcoin to be sent to cybercriminals.

The ransom note has only one operational field where victims of Covid-20 ransomware could enter a decryption key required to unlock the infected device and decrypt the data, but since there's no contact information provided in the ransom note, victims have no other choice but to remove it.

Cybercriminals are always working to improve the methods to deliver their created malware. Everyday computer users can get their devices infected by ransomware in many different ways:

• File-sharing platforms
• Spam emails
• Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) attacks^[1]
• Drive-by downloads
• Deceptive ads, and others.

In many cases, if computer users didn't keep backups of their essential files, it's tough to recover data without the people's intervention behind the cyberattack. But if the victims meet the threat actors' demands, it motivates them to infect more computers and provides finances to do that.

Creators of Covid-20 file virus didn't leave any contact information in the ransom note, as the whole message looks like this:

You Became a Victim of the Covid-20 Ransomware
All Your Files Are Encrypted With Military Grade Encryption Algorithm
If you want to get your data back please pay me $1000000 worth of bitcoin
Any other attempt to Restore Data will Fail
Reinstalling Windows has Been Blocked

Enter Decryption Key:

So the only, and for better or worse, the best choice that the victims have is to remove Covid-20 ransomware. The most effective method to do that is by entrusting this task to professional anti-malware applications such as SpyHunterCombo Cleaner or MalwarebytesMalwarebytes that would locate, isolate and remove the infection with a push of a button.

Although, since this cryptovirus prevents computers from booting up, the elimination must be performed in Safe Mode with Networking. We provide detailed instructions for accessing the mode and removing the infection at the bottom of this article.

After Covid-20 ransomware removal, users should consider performing a system tune-up as various system files and settings might have been altered during the infection. Experts^[2] recommend using the FortectIntego system repair tool for this task.

Most popular ransomware delivery techniques

Threat actors are always developing more sophisticated, harder to detect malware and new, more advanced ways to distribute it. But our research shows that spam emails and file-sharing platforms are still some of the most prevalent ways they're spreading their creations.

Spam emails containing either links to malicious websites or infected attachments can look exactly like the ones you would get from your shipping or shopping company, bank, etc. The difference is in the details. Look for various inconsistencies such as grammatical errors, different domain names, and alike, to determine whether the email sender is legit. And better yet, don't open any shady looking hyperlinks and scan all downloadable email attachments with powerful AV tools.

Another sure way to catch cyber infections is by downloading various files from file-sharing platforms, especially popular torrent sites. Cybercriminals disguise their distributed ransomware by naming it as an expensive pirated software installer, popular game cracks,^[3] or anything similar that would lure the unaware user into downloading it. As soon as such torrent is downloaded, users find out that they got much more than they expected. Refrain from using such websites.

Instructions for Covid-20 ransomware removal from affected devices

This article's culprit differs from other file-locking parasites as it prevents the infected devices from booting up and eliminating it in normal Windows mode. That's why Covid-20 ransomware removal might be a little tricky. But that's why we are here – to help you. 

We provide detailed instructions just below this chapter on how to remove Covid-20 ransomware when starting the device in Safe Mode with Networking. You will still have to use anti-malware tools to do it. If you don't have any or the default one can't eliminate the cyber threat, we recommend using SpyHunterCombo Cleaner or MalwarebytesMalwarebytes.

Once the computer infection is gone, we highly recommend performing a full system repair with the FortectIntego tool as during the encryption, various system files and settings might have been corrupted, which may lead to abnormal behavior exhibition such as crashing, performance loss, etc.