What is .serp File Extension?
Most probably it is one of the worst moments of your virtual life when you find that your file names have changed and now they have a .serp File Extension. This can affect most of your personal and other files since the related malware infection attacks hundreds of extensions. Our malware specialists at anti-spyware-101.com have identified this severe threat as Serpent Ransomware, which may also use ".serpent" file extension. Our research indicates that this malicious program was probably designed to target Danish computer users. Of course, this does not mean that you cannot find files with .serp File Extension on your system if you let this beast of a ransomware program infiltrate your system. Unfortunately, noticing this file extension also means that you may never be able to use the files again that have been taken hostage by this malware. Our experience and user reports confirm that it is always risky to believe that cyber criminals would send you the promised decryption tool or private key even if you transfer the demanded ransom fee. In this case the amount of money is rather high. You also need to consider that paying money to criminals equals supporting cyber crime. We recommend that you remove Serpent Ransomware before you start to delete .serp File Extension from your system.
Where does .serp File Extension come from?
We believe that the authors of this vicious program might come from either Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Turkmenistan, or Tajikistan since these countries seem to be untouched by this ransomware as exceptions. This malicious program is distributed as a file attachment in spam e-mails. This file may appear to be an image or a text document but even if its icon seems to appear so, the real .exe extension may also show up as in "Read_me.docm.exe" for instance. Sometimes it is enough to open a spam mail and it could trigger a malicious code to drop a dangerous infection. But in most cases you need to save the attachment and run it on your computer for it to be able to initialize the attack.
You may consider yourself a cautious computer user, but when you find an e-mail in your spam folder or inbox that seems urgent or important, it is likely that you want to check its content. You may believe that a quick peek may not hurt. Well, we have just explained that in the worst cases, it is possible that even opening a spam could lead to severe infection. These cyber criminals may try to make you believe that you have not settled an overdue invoice, a parking ticket, your Internet provider may cancel your subscription, you entered the wrong banking details while shopping online, and so on. You should always double-check who the sender is, whether a living and real person or company, and then, contact them to figure out if they really meant to send you the mail in question. It pays to be more cautious when in doubt because by the time you remove .serp File Extension from your system along with the related infection, you will not be able to restore your files anymore unless you get hold of the unique private key or a decryption tool, which you may not actually find in this case.
How does .serp File Extension work?
The related ransomware claims to use the AES-256 algorithm to encrypt your files and then, the RSA-2048 algorithm to cipher the decryption key to make it virtually impossible to crack. The generated private key is kept on a remote server operated by these criminals. This malicious attack can cost you practically all your personal and important files since it can encrypt almost 900 file extensions. This obviously includes all your photos, audio files, documents, databases, and archives as well. This is serious devastation if you think about it. Hopefully, you will realize now the importance of making regular backups on removable media to be on the safe side. It could also signal the need for a proper security tool that could automatically prevent such nightmares from happening.
When a file is encrypted, it may get either a ".serp" or a ".serpent" extension. This is like a signature for this malicious program. Once it finishes with all targeted files, you will see the ransom note that has all the information you need to transfer the ransom fee, which is indeed disguised as the price for a decryption tool called "Serpent Decrypter." If you manage to pay within 7 days, you have to transfer 0.75 BTC, which is around 1,177 USD at the moment. However, if you end up paying after the deadline, you have to transfer as much as 2.25 BTC, which is about 3,527 US dollars. It is possible that this malware infection also attacks corporations because who else could pay this insane price for some private photos and documents? We do not advise you to pay at all though. This rarely ends well for the victims. It is possible that these crooks will infect your system with further threats causing even more headaches for you in the future and they may ask for more money to fix it. We suggest that in order to remove .serp File Extension from your computer, you need to delete this ransomware immediately.
How can I delete .serp File Extension?
First of all, we recommend that you identify the malicious .exe file you may have downloaded from a spam mail recently. After binning this file, you can take care of some other related files we have listed for you in our guide below. If you follow our instructions, you could eliminate this threat and the useless files with ease. However, this may not make your virtual world secure enough. We believe that you should install a powerful anti-malware application like SpyHunter to automatically safeguard your PC from potential threats and malicious attacks. Keep this tool always updated and then, you can have real peace of mind once and for all.
Remove .serp File Extension from Windows
- Tap Win+E for the File Explorer to launch.
- Delete the malicious executable file you saved from the spam mail.
- Find the following files and folders and bin them:
%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\[random].vbs
%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\[random]\
%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\[random]\[random].exe - Bin all files with .serp File Extension if you have made certain that there is no way to recover them.
- Empty the Recycle Bin.
- Reboot your system.
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