About .Berost File Virus Ransomware
If you get infected with a Ransomware threat such as .Berost, you normally won’t get to know about it until a shocking ransom-demanding notification gets displayed on your screen. Those pieces of malware don’t typically trigger any visible symptoms of their presence until they complete their agenda and oftentimes manage to remain under the radar of the security program of the user because they don’t really cause direct damage to the system or to its software. This is exactly what makes the Ransomware infections so difficult to detect and remove.
In addition to this, the .berost ransomware could also infect your computer by having the infection files uploaded on suspicious sites. The infection files could pretend to be cracks, patches and other forms of activators.
Once .Berost file ransomware has infected your computer, the virus may immediately drop the malicious files in the following directories:
%AppData%
%Local%
%LocalLow%
%Roaming%
%Temp%
For many web users all around the web as well as for different businesses, institutions and organizations, infections like .Berost, .Fedasot, .Dutan, .Roldat have become a synonym for disaster because, once a malware of this type finds its way into the computer, it immediately starts to secretly apply a complex file-encryption code to all the files that are stored on the HDD. The targeted information may comprise documents, different personal files, archives, audios, images, videos and other commonly used data which becomes totally inaccessible the very moment an encryption code is applied. A scary ransom-demanding message typically gets generated on the screen after the attack and in it, the hackers behind the malware infection demand that their victims pay a certain amount of money (usually in BitCoins) if the latter want to regain their access to the encrypted files. In exchange for the payment, they are promised to obtain a unique decryption key which is the only thing that can reverse the complex encryption code that has been applied by the Ransomware.
The blackmailing scheme relies on surprising the users and giving them a very short deadline to transfer the money. Various tactics of harassment are used to help the hackers in their money-extortion, including threats, psychological pressure and fake promises. The people who don’t keep important data on their computer may not get impressed by such shenanigans but those who have had their valuable information captured by the encryption of a threat like .Berost may have a real hard time dealing with the consequences of the attack.
A common tactic that a lot of cyber criminals use is to pretend that they want to “help” the users. They may even go as far as offer to decrypt a file or two before the ransom is paid in order to gain the trust of the victims and convince them that they have the solution for the salvation of their files. All the hackers want in return is that the user strictly follows the payment instructions.
An alternative to consider
Opting for the payment “solution”, however, hides a lot of risks and can never give you any guarantees about the future of your computer and the data that is stored on it. That’s why our suggestion for the victims of infections like .Berost is to not trust the crooks. Instead, we recommend you explore other options that don’t involve giving your money to criminals and which can help you remove the malware from your system. Our removal guide below may be of use when it comes to this as it contains instructions on how to safely remove .Berost from your PC as well as some potential data restoration suggestions that you may want to check out.
.Berost SUMMARY:
| Name | .Berost |
| Type | Ransomware |
| Danger Level | High (.Berost Ransomware encrypts all types of files) |
| Symptoms | .Berost Ransomware is hard to detect and aside from increased use of RAM and CPU, there would barely be any other visible red flags. |
| Distribution Method | Most of the time, Trojans get distributed through spam e-mails and social network messages, malicious ads, shady and pirated downloads, questionable torrents and other similar methods. |
Remove .Berost File Virus Ransomware
1: Preparations
Note: Before you go any further, we advise you to bookmark this page or have it open on a separate device such as your smartphone or another PC. Some of the steps might require you to exit your browser on this PC.
2: Task Manager
Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to enter the Task Manager. Go to the Tab labeled Processes (Details for Win 8/10). Carefully look through the list of processes that are currently active on you PC.
If any of them seems shady, consumes too much RAM/CPU or has some strange description or no description at all, right-click on it, select Open File Location and delete everything there.
Also, even if you do not delete the files, be sure to stop the process by right-clicking on it and selecting End Process.
3: IP related to .Berost
Go to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. Open the hosts file with notepad.
Find where it says Localhost and take a look below that.
If you see any IP addresses there (below Localhost) send them to us here, in the comments since they might be coming from the .Berost.
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4: Disable Startup programs
Re-open the Start Menu and type msconfig.
Click on the first search result. In the next window, go to the Startup tab. If you are on Win 10, it will send you to the Startup part of the task manager instead, as in the picture:
If you see any sketchy/shady looking entries in the list with an unknown manufacturer or a manufacturer name that looks suspicious as there could be a link between them and .Berost , disable those programs and select OK.
5: Registry Editor
Press Windows key + R and in the resulting window type regedit.
Now, press Ctrl + F and type the name of the virus.
Delete everything that gets found. If you are not sure about whether to delete something, do not hesitate to ask us in the comments. Keep in mind that if you delete the wrong thing, you might cause all sorts of issues to your PC.
6: Deleting potentially malicious data – .Berost
Type each of the following locations in the Windows search box and hit enter to open the locations:
%AppData%
%LocalAppData%
%ProgramData%
%WinDir%
%Temp%
Delete everything you see in Temp linked to .Berost Ransomware. About the other folders, sort their contents by date and delete only the most recent entries. As always, if you are not sure about something, write to us in the comment section.
7: .Berost Decryption
The previous steps were all aimed at removing the .Berost Ransomware from your PC. However, in order to regain access to your files, you will also need to decrypt them or restore them. For that, we have a separate article with detailed instructions on what you have to do in order to unlock your data. Here is a link to that guide.