What is Shrug Ransomware?
Have you found a window displayed on your Desktop and cannot access your programs and files anymore? Shrug Ransomware must be installed on your computer in this case. It is a serious threat that has been developed by cyber criminals who seek to obtain money from users. To increase the chances of receiving the money, it locks personal files and Desktop on the affected computer. Most probably, you could not prevent it from entering your system if you are reading this article right now. Luckily, you do not need to pay money to cyber criminals to unlock your screen and files. Specialists say that Shrug Ransomware is decryptable. That is, a free tool available on the web will unlock your files for free. Consequently, there is no point in sending money to malicious software developers. Before you use the decryptor, delete the ransomware infection fully so that it could not lock files once again. It is not one of those threats that load up on system startup, but you might launch it accidentally yourself.
What does Shrug Ransomware do?
As you should already know, Shrug Ransomware locks files on users’ computers. It has been designed to encrypt data because it is used to obtain money from victims. Researchers have noticed that this infection locks all files in C:\, including .txt, .odt, .jpg, .png, .mp3, .mpeg, .json, .dat, .cpp, .cs, .docx, .xls, .doc, .ppt, etc. All encrypted data gets the .SHRUG filename extension appended, but it does not mean that you could check them because Shrug Ransomware also places a screen-locking window over Desktop. It contains a message for users. First of all, users are told that they have become the victims of a ransomware attack. Second, they find out that they will get their files back if they pay 50 USD in Bitcoin. As mentioned, free decryption software is available, so you should not invest in the decryptor cyber criminals claim to have. To be frank, it is never a good idea to pay money to cyber criminals because they might not give you anything once they receive the money sent to them. That is, there is a huge possibility that you would not get the decryptor even if you paid the ransom.
Where does Shrug Ransomware come from?
Shrug Ransomware slithers onto computers illegally. Usually, users find out about its successful entrance when they discover a bunch of files locked on their computers. No, users do not download this threat on their computers consciously, but they help it to enter their systems quite frequently. For example, Shrug Ransomware could have ended up on your computer after you had opened a malicious email attachment. Even though this is an extremely popular method to distribute threats, specialists say that other distribution methods might be used to spread ransomware infections too. According to them, cyber criminals might drop ransomware on the computer after they hack the RDP connection. Last but not least, users might download malware from a malicious P2P website themselves. Of course, they know nothing about the entrance of malicious software until it is too late. We will help you to delete Shrug Ransomware this time, but you should know that there are hundreds of more harmful infections available, so you might end up with new malware if you leave your system unprotected. We do not expect you to protect the system against malware all alone, but we highly recommend installing security software on your PC.
How to delete Shrug Ransomware
Even though Shrug Ransomware does not create a point of execution and cannot continue working after the system restart, you might still launch it yourself accidentally. In this case, it will lock your files and display a window on your screen again. Unfortunately, none of your files will be unlocked even if you erase the ransomware infection fully, but you will be sure that it cannot cause you more problems. Follow the step-by-step removal guide provided below to get rid of this threat. You can delete it using an automated malware remover as well. To be honest, the latter is the easiest method to erase malware from the system.
Shrug Ransomware removal guide
- Reboot your PC to remove the screen-locking window from your Desktop.
- Open Registry Editor (tap Win+R, insert regedit, and click OK).
- Right-click on the registry key HKCU\Shrug created by Shrug Ransomware and select Delete.
- Open Windows Explorer (press Win+E).
- Check %USERPROFILE%\Downloads and %USERPROFILE\Desktop.
- Delete the malicious file you have downloaded recently.
- Empty Trash.
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