How to remove Jokers House ransomware virus

Jigsaw-inspired Jokers House ransomware encrypts data and demands a ransom

Jokers House virus is a new crypto-ransomware ^[1] which belongs to the Jigsaw virus family. Since the virus has just emerged on the web, the ways in which it operates are still rather obscure. Nevertheless, its purpose of infecting computers is obvious and needs no further investigation: the virus developers want to make use of the unsuspecting victims and earn some easy money. Just like its predecessor, this ransomware encrypts victim’s files using complex encryption algorithm ^[2] which makes them inaccessible and appends .Contact_TarineOZA@Gmail.com_ extensions to each affected component. As you may already guess, the victims are expected to contact the criminals via TarineOZA@gmail.com email address if they want to get access to their data decryption key. Unfortunately, the hackers will not give it away for free. They demand 100 dollar ransom to be sent to them via Bitcoin ^[3]. According to the ransom note that the virus drops on the computer, every hour of not paying up will cost the victim one file. The virus sets an automatic stopwatch which counts down the time until each file is deleted. Besides, the criminals warn that trying to close the virus executable or shutting down the computer will result in the loss of 1000 files. We still don’t know whether these claims are actually true, and the program works just like the hackers planned it to, but we highly recommend not to have any business with them. If you remove Jokers House properly, you won’t lose your files and will be able to recover them using some alternative tools. You should start the elimination by running your computer in Safe Mode without networking and running a reputable antivirus utility to remove the malicious files from your PC.

Looking at its design, Jokers House is very similar to Jigsaw. It uses the same timer to countdown the time until file destruction, and the text in the ransom note also fills the window in the same “typing” manner as it did in the previous virus versions. What differs, in this case, is the choice of the name and the character that the virus suppose to present. In the original, it was the maniac called Jigsaw, and now it’s the famous DC Comic character Joker ^[4]. If the extortionists keep on using such techniques — they must definitely work. Luckily, Jigsaw and its versions do not seem to be much of a challenge for the malware experts who have already managed to come up with Jigsaw decryptor in the past. The decryptor was updated with each version that followed the original, so we can expect a new update which will include the Joker virus some time soon. In the meanwhile, you can take your time to perform a scrupulous Jokers House removal.

Keeping backups is the best way to protect your data

Jokers House is still in its initial stages of distribution, so it is important to talk about how to protect your computer from its potential attack. You may use anti-malware utilities or other security software to prevent the virus from entering your PC, but the problem is that you may accidentally allow the malware on your computer yourself after downloading some rogue software or opening an infected email attachment. Thus, a more reasonable option is to protect your data itself rather than try to fend off the virus from. And there is nothing that ransomware creators hate more than the clever users who have copies of their files saved where the malicious ransomware code can’t reach them ^[5]. Keep backup copies of your files stored on external HDDs, USBs or other storage drives, and you will not have to bother about Jokers House ransom demands.

Jokers House removal requires running system in Safe Mode

To remove Jokers House virus properly and without causing any more damage to the system, it is important to restart your computer in Safe Mode without Networking. This way, the malicious virus code will not be able to reach its Command & Control center from which it received orders to destroy your files. Then, you will be able to run an antivirus utility from your system or a flash drive and allow it to execute Jokers House removal. Do not try to fight the virus yourself! You never know if the malware is not programmed to rig your computer entirely after it senses a risk of being destroyed.