Gehad Virus. How to Decrypt. Gehad Files?
How Damaging Is Gehad Ransomware? Ransomware Stands for a Special Kind of Software That Introduces Unwanted Alterations with Your Documents and Then Forces You...
How damaging is Gehad ransomware?
Ransomware stands for a special kind of software that introduces unwanted alterations with your documents and then forces you to pay the specific amount of money to restore them. Note that Gehad was first revealed and discovered by Michael Gillespie">1.
Gehad belongs to the Djvu ransomware family. Its activity is basically similar to other representatives of the same family: Vusad, Berosuce, Herad. It modifies all common file types though encrypting them. Hence, users cannot use the files as soon as they are encrypted. Gehad adds its particular “.gehad” extension into all file modified by it. For example, the file “report.doc”, once ciphered by Gehad, will be changed into “report.doc.gehad”. As soon as the encryption is accomplished, Gehad drops a specific document (“_readme.txt”) and puts it into all folders that contain the encrypted files.
The text file generated by Gehad asking for the ransom payment is basically similar to other notifications mentioned by the ransomware belonging to the Djvu kind of infection. The summary of the message is that all the files are encrypted and that the only one solution to get them back is to use a unique decryption key.
The cryptography mechanism applied by Gehad is not completely researched. However, it is definitely true that PC owners whose documents got encrypted may be given a specific decryption key, which is totally distinct and there are no other copies of it that would work solely on your device. The sad reality is that it is impossible to recover the information without the unique key available.
As long as Gehad is performing its malicious activity it is impossible for users to gain access to the key, which is stored on a remote server owned by the criminals who promote the Gehad ransomware.
The crooks mention that for receiving the key and restoring the amended data, the payment should be implemented in their favor that amounts to $980. To obtain the payment details the victims are encouraged by the message to contact the frauds by writing an email, or via Telegram.
The alert also indicates that the computer owners must get in touch with the Gehad representatives during 72 hours starting from the moment of data modification. The notice mentions that on the condition of getting in touch within 72 hours users will be granted a 50% rebate, thus the ransom amount will be minimized down to $490). However, no matter what the demanded amount is, stay away from paying the ransom!
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Is it a good idea to pay the Gehad ransom?
If you think that paying the requested ransom is the only way-out, I should mention a few thoughts regarding this decision. The criminals who stands behind the Ransomware surely wants you to think that there is definitely no other option to recover the information.
It is clear that the crooks want the ransom to be transferred via some specific pre-defined channels and sequence of steps. As a matter of fact, this is typically done via Bitcoins as the main currency. The application of Bitcoins is generally the preferred option by cyber frauds because such transfers are very unlikely to get traced.
Considering this peculiarity of Bitcoins, they are often used by hackers that aim to scare the targeted victims through the Ransomware. The technology of such hard-to-trace virtual currency is key factor why almost all Ransomware criminals manage to remain anonymous after successfully fulfilling their covetous money-stealing missions.
Yet, in many instances, even transferring the requested ransom might not help the virus victims as it is quite possible that they may not be given any file-decryption key. If so, it is a good solution to try some other possible alternatives that might be available – paying the ransom is most certainly not the good way-out and should be the very last item in the list.
You cannot trust online frauds since they aren’t concerned what you feel about the trouble with your files, even when you do initiate the transfer of the ransom. This is why paying the money demanded by these frauds does not really fix your problem. So, often people simply waste their money for absolutely nothing.
I strongly recommend that you do not contact these crooks and do not send funds into their pockets. As per now, there are no tools able to crack the Gehad ransomware or restore the encrypted data. Thus, the one of the real working solution to recover the lost data – just using the available backups, as long as it is in place.
The scary alert demanding from users to pay the ransom to decrypt the compromised data contains these frustrating warnings
You should be aware that the web today is full of viruses that look pretty similar to the Gehad infection. Hazardous applications known as ransomware are typically elaborated to encrypt important files and to mention about the ransom on the targeted screen to eventually force people to transfer the ransom figure into the accounts of the crooks that develop such a kind of malware.
The peculiarity of all such ransomware threats is that they apply a similar set of actions for generating the unique decryption key to recover the ciphered data.
Thus, unless the ransomware is still under the stage of development or possesses with some hard-to-track flaws, manually recovering the ciphered data is a thing you can’t really perform. The only solution to prevent the loss of your valuable data is to regularly make backups of your crucial files.
Note that even if you do maintain such backups regularly, they ought to be put into a specific location without loitering, not being connected to your main workstation.
For instance, the backup may be kept on the USB flash drive or some alternative external hard drive storage. Optionally, you may refer to the help of online (cloud) information storage.
Needless to mention, when you maintain your backup data on your common device, it may be similarly ciphered as well as other data.
For this reason, locating the backup on your main PC is surely not a good idea.
Robert Thorne covers electric vehicle innovations, autonomous driving systems, global mobility trends, and automotive engineering developments.
