What is 3301 Ransomware?
It is probably the worst nightmare of a computer user when a dangerous threat like 3301 Ransomware manages to infiltrate the system. This malicious program can encrypt your precious pictures, videos, documents, archives, and other third-party programs as well in order to extort money from you. Although these criminals promise to send you the decryption key automatically after you transfer the money, you cannot trust them to do so. In fact, most of the time victims pay only to lose their money in addition to their files. It is always possible that malware specialists can come up with a free tool for victims to recover encrypted files but our malware researchers at anti-spyware-101.com have not found one yet on the web. Therefore, the only way for you to save your files from total destruction is to have a backup stored in cloud storage or on a removable drive. We advise you to remove 3301 Ransomware the moment you realize that it has hit your computer.
Where does 3301 Ransomware come from?
Strange as it may sound but most of the time it is not some nefarious conspiracy of hackers planting such an infection on your computer manually in some secret way; although, it does happen sometimes. Yet, it is more likely that you infect your own PC with this vicious program. There are a couple of possible ways to do so. For instance, you can receive a spam e-mail with an attachment that may pose as an image, a document, or a .zip archive. You may be lead to believe that this attachment is very important for you to see. Thus, most people fall for this trick and click to view this file but little do they know that this is tantamount to infecting their system with a devastating ransomware. Whenever in doubt about an e-mail, you should not open it at all, let alone download its attachment to view it. Do not trust your spam filter fully because this can make you believe that all the mails you receive can be trusted. However, you would end up having to delete 3301 Ransomware from your system right away and probably losing all your important files in the process.
It is also possible to activate such a dangerous threat if you download free programs from shady torrent and shareware pages that usually promote malicious bundles instead of standalone installers. When you install such a bundle, this infection might be one of the several malware threats that are packed in it. Always use official pages whenever downloading free software and updates in order to avoid such attacks. Also, it is vital that you keep your browsers and drivers (Java and Flash) up-to-date since by clicking on unsafe third-party ads and links you could be redirected to malicious webpages created with Exploit Kits that can easily take advantage of outdated software and drop this dangerous infection as soon as the page loads. All in all, we recommend that you remove 3301 Ransomware ASAP.
How does 3301 Ransomware work?
Our research shows that this ransomware uses the AES-256 encryption algorithm to encrypt your most important files, which is a built-in Windows algorithm and as such, it can complete its mission in no time really. Thus, there is virtually no time window for you to stop this malicious attack even if you realize that you cannot access certain files. By the time you would be able to remove 3301 Ransomware, all your files would be encrypted beyond repair. The infected files are not only encoded but they also get a new extension: “.3301.” This malware infection creates three files in every folder where files have been encrypted: DECRYPT_MY_FILES.HTML, DECRYPT_MY_FILES.vbs, and ID.TXT.
The first two files obviously contain the ransom note as their names suggest, while the third file contains a unique identification number that you are supposed to use to log in to the payment site. You have to download and use the Tor browser in order for you to be able to access this site. The strangest thing about this attack is that these criminals only seem to demand 0.00036 BTC, which is about 1.5 dollars, paid within 168 hours (7 days) or else your decryption key will be deleted permanently from the secret remote server. Even if this amount is ridiculous, we do not advise you to send it to these crooks or contact them in any way because you could be attacked again for more money. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that your files will be decrypted anyway. We suggest that you remove 3301 Ransomware immediately after reading this article.
How can I delete 3301 Ransomware?
In order to eliminate this vicious threat, you need to be able to identify the malicious executable file you have downloaded recently. We recommend that you find all suspicious files you have saved lately and delete them all along with the three files created in the affected folders. Please follow our instructions below if you feel ready to act on your own. If you would prefer to use an automated tool, we suggest that you install a reliable anti-malware program, such as SpyHunter. For best protection results, you should keep all your programs, including your security tool, always updated.
Remove 3301 Ransomware from Windows
- Press Win+E and find the malicious file (could be randomly named) you have saved recently.
- Delete this file.
- Delete the following files from all infected folders: DECRYPT_MY_FILES.HTML, DECRYPT_MY_FILES.vbs, and ID.TXT
- Scan your “%APPDATA%” folder for a file named “iekaewe.exe” and delete it if found.
- Empty your Recycle Bin and restart your PC.
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