Cryptbit Virus (. Cryptbit Files) — How to Remove?

What is Cryptbit virus?

Cryptbit will append its extra .cryptbit extension to the title of each encoded file. For instance, an image named “photo.jpg” will be changed to “photo.jpg.cryptbit”. Just like the Excel file named “table.xlsx” will be renamed to “table.xlsx.cryptbit”, and so forth.

In every directory with the encrypted files, a CryptBIT-restore-files.txt text document will appear. It is a ransom money note. Therein you can find information on the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the tamperers. That is how they do it.

In the image below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Cryptbit looks like. Each filename has the “.cryptbit” extension added to it.

How did my machine catch Cryptbit ransomware?

There are currently three most exploited ways for hackers to have ransomware settled in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer-to-peer file transfer.

If you open your inbox and see letters that look just like notifications from utility services companies, delivery agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose addresser is strange to you, be wary of opening those emails. They are most likely to have a viral file attached to them. Therefore, it is even more dangerous to open any attachments that come with emails like these.

Another option for ransom hunters is a Trojan virus model². A Trojan is a program that gets into your computer pretending to be something else. For instance, you download an installer for some program you want or an update for some software. But what is unpacked reveals itself a harmful program that encrypts your data. As the update wizard can have any title and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the source of the stuff you’re downloading. The optimal way is to use the software developers’ official websites.

As for the peer-to-peer networks like torrents or eMule, the danger is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Web. You can never guess what you download until you get it. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy resources. Also, it is reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded files with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is complete.