Netlock Virus 🔐 (. Netlock Files) — How to Remove?

What is known about the Netlockvirus?

Netlock will add its specific .netlock extension to the title of each encoded file. For instance, a file entitled “photo.jpg” will be changed to “photo.jpg.netlock”. In the same manner, the Excel sheet with the name “table.xlsx” will end up as “table.xlsx.netlock”, and so on.

In every directory that contains the encrypted files, a how_to_back_files.html file will be created. It is a ransom money note. It contains information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to buy the decryption tool from the tamperers. That is it.

In the screenshot below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Netlock looks like. Each filename has the “.netlock” extension added to it.

How did my machine catch Netlock ransomware?

Nowadays, there are three most exploited ways for tamperers to have ransomware settled in your system. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer-to-peer networks.

If you open your inbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, delivery agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is unknown to you, beware of opening those emails. They are very likely to have a malware file enclosed in them. So it is even riskier to download any attachments that come with emails like these.

Another option for ransom hunters is a Trojan virus model³. A Trojan is a program that gets into your machine pretending to be something else. Imagine, you download an installer of some program you need or an update for some service. However, what is unpacked turns out to be a harmful agent that encrypts your data. As the update file 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 best thing is to trust the software developers’ official websites.

As for the peer file transfer protocols like torrents or eMule, the threat 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. So you’d better be using trustworthy resources. Also, it is a good idea to scan the directory containing the downloaded objects with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is complete.