About .Lokas Virus

.Lokas is the newest member of the STOP ransomware family, identical to .Besub and .Cezor . Ransomware virus programs are some of the most dangerous online infections that one can encounter – this type of cryptoviruses have the ability to make the PC files of the targeted user completely inaccessible by applying an elaborate data-encryption code to all of them. After the malware has completed the encryption process, a ransom note would get displayed on the victim’s monitor, telling them that their personal files have been made unavailable and that they will have to pay a ransom to the cybercriminals to restore them. Something else that may be contained in the ransom-demanding message is threats regarding the future of the locked files in case the targeted victim refuses to pay. The criminals may threaten to delete them or destroy the key that is needed for their decryption. If you have had the misfortune of catching .Lokas on your computer, you need to get as much information as you can with regards to this malicious program and the next paragraphs can help you do that.

There are actually a number of extremely important facts which a user really should keep in mind if faced with a Ransomware. One of them is the fact that most of these viruses are normally able to perform the encryption process uninterrupted by your cybersecurity program. This means that a cryptovirus such as .Lokas, for example, is perfectly capable of making data unavailable without being detected and stopped. Often this is related to the fact that those threats rarely show any symptom of their actions. Another big concern with Ransomware is that the encryption codes, utilized by these malware versions, are quite often exceptionally complex and decoding them is a very tough task. Because of this, oftentimes the encryption simply cannot be broken and the sealed files remain inaccessible forever.

The .Lokas virus would drop a “_readme.txt” file once the file encryption has been done.

Dealing with .Lokas manually

Despite the fact that those programs seem to be particularly nasty, they usually do not harm the personal computer or its system and that’s why an anti-malware app may ignore them. To apply the encryption, an infection like .Lokas normally duplicates your documents into encrypted copies and then simply deletes the initial files. The illegal copies of your records are intact, still, you are unable to reach any of them without the special decryption key. In order to obtain money from the users, the Ransomware infections generally rely on the shock factor, emotional attacks, threatening messages, short deadlines, and fishy blackmail agendas. For this reason, a lot of people make the crucial mistake of getting panicked and impulsively transferring the requested ransom in an effort to save their data. The main reason why this can be such a bad course of action is the fact that paying the ransom doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the files are going to get decrypted. You must be aware that the moment the hackers get the ransom money, they could refuse to unlock your data. Even if they DO give you a decryption key, there is still no guarantee that you will regain your access because it might end up being utterly useless and ineffective. This is why seeking an alternative option to the ransom payment would be a much better way of handling the issue. In order to help you, in this post, we have included a Removal Guide that may be capable of helping you remove the virus and unlock your documents. We can’t give you a guarantee that after completing the steps there, you will get all your files back because it really depends on the particular case. Yet, it’s definitely worth giving it a shot as it will cost you nothing.

SUMMARY:

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Remove .Lokas 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 .Lokas

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 .Lokas.

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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 .Lokas , 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 – .Lokas

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 .Lokas 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: .Lokas Decryption

The previous steps were all aimed at removing the .Lokas 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.

The post Remove .Lokas Virus (Ransomware Removal + File Recovery) appeared first on Malware Complaints.