How to remove .Lurk file virus

About this threat

.Lurk file virus file-encrypting malware, also known as ransomware, will encrypt your data. Infection may mean, you could lose access to your files permanently, so it isn’t to be taken lightly. It’s rather easy to get infected, which makes it a highly dangerous malware. Infection most often happens through spam email attachments, malicious adverts or fake downloads. Once the encoding process is completed, you will see a ransom note, decryptor. How much is demanded of you depends on the data encrypting malicious program, you might be requested to pay $50 or a couple of thousands of dollars. Even if a minor amount is demanded of you, we do not advise paying. Who’s going to stop cyber crooks from simply taking your money, without providing you a decoding utility. We would not be shocked if you were left with locked data, and there would be plenty more like you. It would be better to take part of the demanded money and invest it into backup, instead. We’re sure you can find an option that matches your requirements as there are plenty to choose from. Just terminate .Lurk file virus, and if you had made backup before the malware infiltrated your system, file recovery shouldn’t be an issue. These kinds of threats are not going away any time soon, so you need to prepare yourself. To guard a system, one should always be ready to run into potential malware, becoming informed about how to avoid them.

Download Removal Toolto remove .Lurk file virus

File encrypting malicious program spread ways

Many file encrypting malicious program use quite basic spread ways, which include spam email attachments and corrupted advertisements/downloads. More elaborate methods can be used as well, however.

Remember if you have recently opened an attachment from an email which ended up in the spam folder. The infected file is simply added to an email, and then sent out to potential victims. It’s quite ordinary for those emails to contain money-related information, which scares users into opening it. What you can expect a file encoding malicious software email to contain is a general greeting (Dear Customer/Member/User etc), evident mistypes and errors in grammar, encouragement to open the file added, and the use of a famous company name. A company whose email you should certainly open would not use general greetings, and would use your name instead. You are likely to encounter company names such as Amazon or PayPal used in those emails, as a known name would make users trust the email more. Clicking on adverts when on dubious websites and using compromised pages as download sources may also result in an infection. Be very careful about what ads you press on, especially when visiting suspicious pages. And stick to official download sources as much as possible, because otherwise you are putting your computer in jeopardy. Avoid downloading anything from advertisements, as they aren’t good sources. If an application was needed to be updated, you would be notified via the application itself, not through your browser, and most update themselves anyway.

What does it do?

Malware specialists regularly caution about the dangers of ransomware, basically because infection would lead to permanent data loss. The process of encoding your files take a very short time, so you may not even notice it. If not for other signs, the weird file extension attached to the files will make everything clear. Ransomware tends to use strong encryption algorithms to encode files. If you are confused about what is going on, everything will become clear when a ransom note appears. You will be offered a decoding utility but paying for it isn’t recommended. Remember that you are dealing with cyber crooks, and what’s stopping them from simply taking your money. The money you give them would also possibly go towards funding future ransomware projects. Although it is understandable, by complying with the requests, people are making file encoding malicious programs a highly successful business, which is estimated to have made $1 billion in 2016, and obviously that attracts plenty of people to it. Investing into backup instead of giving into the requests would be a better idea. And if this type of threat reoccurred again, your data wouldn’t be endangered as copies would be stored in backup. We suggest you ignore the demands and terminate .Lurk file virus. And attempt to familiarize with how to prevent these kinds of threats in the future, so that this doesn’t happen.

.Lurk file virus termination

Take into account that malicious threat removal software will be required to completely eliminate the ransomware. Unless you know exactly what you are doing, which is possibly not the case if you are reading this, we do not suggest proceeding to delete .Lurk file virus manually. If you implement anti-malware software, everything would be done for you, and you wouldn’t unintentionally end up doing more harm. If the data encrypting malicious software is still present on your computer, the security utility will uninstall .Lurk file virus, as those utilities are developed for taking care of such infections. So that you know where to begin, we have prepared instructions below this report to help you. Unfortunately, the malware removal program will merely terminate the threat, it is not able to decrypt data. We ought to mention, however, that in some cases, malware specialists create free decryptors, if the ransomware may be decrypted.

Download Removal Toolto remove .Lurk file virus

Learn how to remove .Lurk file virus from your computer

• Step 1. Remove .Lurk file virus using Safe Mode with Networking.
• Step 2. Remove .Lurk file virus using System Restore
• Step 3. Recover your data

Step 1. Remove .Lurk file virus using Safe Mode with Networking.

• a) Step 1. Access Safe Mode with Networking.
• b) Step 2. Remove .Lurk file virus.

a) Step 1. Access Safe Mode with Networking.

For Windows 7/Vista/XP

1. Start → Shutdown → Restart → OK.
2. Press and keep pressing F8 until Advanced Boot Options appears.
3. Choose Safe Mode with Networking

For Windows 8/10 users

1. Press the power button that appears at the Windows login screen. Press and hold Shift. Click Restart.
2. Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart.
3. Choose Enable Safe Mode with Networking.

b) Step 2. Remove .Lurk file virus.

You will now need to open your browser and download some kind of anti-malware software. Choose a trustworthy one, install it and have it scan your computer for malicious threats. When the ransomware is found, remove it. If, for some reason, you can't access Safe Mode with Networking, go with another option.

Step 2. Remove .Lurk file virus using System Restore

• a) Step 1. Access Safe Mode with Command Prompt.
• b) Step 2. Restore files and settings.

a) Step 1. Access Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

For Windows 7/Vista/XP

1. Start → Shutdown → Restart → OK.
2. Press and keep pressing F8 until Advanced Boot Options appears.
3. Select Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

For Windows 8/10 users

1. Press the power button that appears at the Windows login screen. Press and hold Shift. Click Restart.
2. Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart.
3. Choose Enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

b) Step 2. Restore files and settings.

1. You will need to type in cd restore in the window that appears. Press Enter.
2. Type in rstrui.exe and again, press Enter.
3. A window will pop-up and you should press Next. Choose a restore point and press Next again.
4. Press Yes.

While this should have taken care of the ransomware, you might want to download anti-malware just to be sure no other threats are lurking.  

Step 3. Recover your data

• a) Using Data Recovery Pro to recover encrypted files.
• b) Restore files through Windows Previous Versions
• c) Using Shadow Explorer to recover files

While backup is essential, there is still quite a few users who do not have it. If you are one of them, you can try the below provided methods and you just might be able to recover files.

a) Using Data Recovery Pro to recover encrypted files.

1. Download Data Recovery Pro, preferably from a trustworthy website.
2. Scan your device for recoverable files.
3. Recover them.

b) Restore files through Windows Previous Versions

If you had System Restore enabled, you can recover files through Windows Previous Versions.

1. Find a file you want to recover.
2. Right-click on it.
3. Select Properties and then Previous versions.
4. Pick the version of the file you want to recover and press Restore.

c) Using Shadow Explorer to recover files

If you are lucky, the ransomware did not delete your shadow copies. They are made by your system automatically for when system crashes.

1. Go to the official website (shadowexplorer.com) and acquire the Shadow Explorer application.
2. Set up and open it.
3. Press on the drop down menu and pick the disk you want.
4. If folders are recoverable, they will appear there. Press on the folder and then Export.

* SpyHunter scanner, published on this site, is intended to be used only as a detection tool. More info on SpyHunter. To use the removal functionality, you will need to purchase the full version of SpyHunter. If you wish to uninstall SpyHunter, click here.