Ransomware Removal: How to Get Rid of Ransomware

The cybercrime industry has always been particularly lucrative for hackers. Unfortunately, its value is expected to swell higher than ever before by the year 2025.

More specifically, the entire cybercrime industry will be worth over $10 trillion.

Ransomware is one of the most common forms of malware that hackers use. It’s not possible to get rid of, though. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about ransomware removal.

What Is Ransomware?

As the name suggests, this type of program is malicious software that blocks access to key data on your networks and devices. More often than not, hackers target businesses with ransomware since the information they work with is often inherently more valuable.

Hackers are able to prevent access by forcefully encrypting the data they target. As you might guess, this places business owners in a situation of urgency.

They are faced with attempting to work around the malware attack or simply paying the ransom to the hacker.

In order to maintain anonymity, hackers often demand that the ransom is paid in cryptocurrency. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the criminal will return access to your data after the ransom has been paid.

In the event that the victim does not pay the ransom, the hacker will often threaten to delete the data or leave it encrypted indefinitely. For business owners, a situation like this can be potentially catastrophic.

How Does It Spread?

In order for ransomware to infect a device, it often requires user input. To elaborate, this type of malware generally isn’t able to make its way onto a machine on its own.

As such, one of the most common ways that ransomware spreads require the user to download a suspicious file. In context, this often involves an employee at an organization downloading an email attachment that they receive.

It may seem fairly straightforward to prevent this type of scenario. Unfortunately, hackers have become fairly proficient at gaining the trust of their victims.

For instance, an employee at a healthcare organization might receive an email from what appears to be their supervisor. The message itself says there have been last-minute changes to a specific company policy that all team members must view as soon as possible.

These factors combined will often lead to the victim downloading the file without a second thought. From here, ransomware is able to infect the device and begin encrypting key information.

It’s important to note that ransomware is able to rapidly spread over a network once it has infected a single device. It’s not uncommon for an entire department at a company to suffer from the consequences even though a single person was responsible for downloading the virus.

How Can I Remove It?

It should come as no surprise that removing this type of malware is notoriously difficult. First, you'll need to disconnect from the Internet entirely.

This will prevent the hacker from having any sort of communication with your device. Afterward, it’s essential that you run a comprehensive virus scan.

As long as the software you are using is up-to-date, you shouldn’t have any trouble locating the malicious files. Since you have already disconnected from the Internet, there isn’t a risk of malware communicating with the outside world.

For many people, though, this is where the removal process comes to a halt. Specialized tools are required in order to fully remove ransomware from a device.

Attempting to delete the files on your own is often insufficient. Additionally, you may not be able to locate key components of the ransomware, something that will prevent you from fully removing it.

For this reason, it’s highly recommended that you outsource to a professional to handle this obligation for you. Not only do they have the tools required, but they also have specific knowledge on how to safely remove this type of malware.

Keep this in mind when moving forward. Many entrepreneurs panic and either attempt to remove the software on their own or simply pay the ransom.

Leveraging this option will give you the greatest chance of recovery.

How Can I Protect Myself in the Future?

One of the most straightforward ways to protect yourself from ransomware in the future is understanding how to recognize a potential attack.

In general, someone will often get a suspicious email or another type of message that urges you to download a file. However, you can also infect your device with ransomware by clicking a fraudulent link.

By extension, you also need to ensure that your team fully understands how to recognize a ransomware attack. Holding regular training sessions is highly recommended in order to properly educate the employees of your organization.

It’s also in your best interest to hold multiple training sessions per year. As time goes on, hackers are able to develop new cyber threats that put companies at risk.

As you discover more information about emerging ransomware techniques, you can pass this information along to employees. This will help add a much-needed layer of protection to your business.

Ransomware Removal Might Seem Impossible

The good news is that it's not nearly as difficult as it may seem at first. The above guide will help ensure that you handle ransomware removal appropriately and get your business back on track.

Want to learn more about what we have to offer? Feel free to get in touch with us today and see how we can help.