Remove CovidLock ransomware

Is this a serious threat

CovidLock ransomware file-encoding malware, usually known as ransomware, will encode your data. Ransomware is classified to be a very serious contamination as you could end up permanently encrypted files. Another reason why data encrypting malware is believed to be so dangerous is that the threat is quite easy to acquire. If your computer is infected, you possibly opened a spam email attachment, clicked on a malicious advert or fell for a fake download. As soon as a device is infected, the encryption process starts, and once it is finished, you will be asked to pay a ransom for data recovery. The amount of money asked depends on the ransomware, the demands could be to pay $50 or a some thousands of dollars. Whatever you are requested to pay by this threat, consider every likely consequence before you do. Don’t trust crooks to keep their word and recover your files, since there’s nothing stopping them from just taking your money. There are many accounts of users receiving nothing after giving into with the demands. Look into some backup options, so that if this were to reoccur, you you would not lose your data. We are sure you will find an option that suits your requirements as there are plenty to select from. And if by chance you had made copies of your files before the contamination happened, just delete CovidLock ransomware and then proceed to data restoration. These threats are everywhere, so you need to be ready. If you wish to stay safe, you have to become familiar with potential threats and how to guard your machine from them.

Download Removal Toolto remove CovidLock ransomware

Ransomware spread ways

People typically infect their devices with data encrypting malware by opening infected files added to emails, pressing on infected advertisements and downloading from sources they should not. That doesn’t mean developers won’t use sophisticated methods.

It is possible you opened a malicious email attachment, which is what permitted the ransomware to enter. The infected file is attached to an email, and then sent out to hundreds of possible victims. Those kinds of emails normally end up in spam but some people believe they’re legitimate and move them to the inbox, thinking it is important. You can expect the ransomware email to have a basic greeting (Dear Customer/Member/User etc), clear mistypes and errors in grammar, strong encouragement to open the attachment, and the use of an established firm name. To clarify, if someone important would send you a file, they would would know your name and wouldn’t use general greetings, and you would not have to look for the email in spam. Expect to see company names like Amazon or PayPal used in those emails, as a known name would make users trust the email more. Infected adverts and bogus downloads might also be the cause of an infection. If while you were on a compromised website you clicked on an infected advertisement, it might have triggered the ransomware to download. Stop downloading from untrustworthy pages, and stick to official ones. One thing to bear in mind is to never download anything, whether software or an update, from weird sources, such as adverts. If a program needed to update itself, it would not alert you via browser, it would either update by itself, or send you a notification via the software itself.

What does it do?

An infection that leads to permanent data loss is not an impossible scenario, which is why ransomware is is classified as a dangerous-level infection. And it’ll take minutes, if not seconds, for all files you think are important to be locked. If not for other signs, you can notice the file encoding malicious program when weird file extension appear attached to your files. Strong encryption algorithms will be used to lock your files, which makes decoding files for free very hard or even impossible. You will get a ransom note once the encryption process is finished, and it should explain what you should do next. The ransom note will contain information about how to purchase the decryption tool, but consider everything thoroughly before you opt to comply with the requests. By paying, you would be putting a lot of faith in crooks, the people who are responsible for your file encryption in the first place. The ransom money would also probably be funding future file encoding malicious program activities. The easy money is constantly attracting crooks to the business, which is estimated to have made more than $1 billion in 2016. We suggest you instead invest in some kind of backup, which would always be there if you lost your original files. And if this kind of threat reoccurred again, your data would not be endangered as you could just access them from backup. We recommend you ignore the demands and uninstall CovidLock ransomware. If you become familiar with how these threats spread, you ought to be able to avoid them in the future.

How to uninstall CovidLock ransomware

We caution you that anti-malware tool will be required to completely get rid of the ransomware. If you attempt to manually eliminate CovidLock ransomware, you may unintentionally end up harming your computer, so we do not advise proceeding by yourself. If you employed anti-malware software, everything would be done for you, and you would not unintentionally end up doing more harm. Such security programs are created to terminate CovidLock ransomware and all other similar threats, so you should not encounter any problems. However, in case you aren’t sure about how to proceed, you may use the instructions we have given below to help you. The tool is not, however, capable of recovering your files, it’ll only erase the infection for you. It should be said, however, that in some cases, a free decryptor may be developed by malware specialists, if the ransomware is decryptable.

Download Removal Toolto remove CovidLock ransomware

Learn how to remove CovidLock ransomware from your computer

• Step 1. Remove CovidLock ransomware using Safe Mode with Networking.
• Step 2. Remove CovidLock ransomware using System Restore
• Step 3. Recover your data

Step 1. Remove CovidLock ransomware using Safe Mode with Networking.

• a) Step 1. Access Safe Mode with Networking.
• b) Step 2. Remove CovidLock ransomware.

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 CovidLock ransomware.

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 CovidLock ransomware 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.