Horon Ransomware - How to remove

Horon, the ransomware virus that renames files by adding “.horon” to the end, is a new version of the STOP/DJVU family of file-locking malware. Horon is primarily created to force people to pay money to the criminals behind this crypto-extortion. Luckily, there are other ways to possibly recover the corrupted files.

While Horon is new, STOP/DJVU is not. This family of viruses has been active since the end of last year, targeting English speakers by hiding in free programs online, pirated files, infected e-mail attachments, and software bundles. Horon is a continuation of months of work done by the criminals: the encryption is faster and more resilient than before, the files harder to restore.

Characteristics of Horon

The virus infects computers with the goal of infecting all the files that it can without breaking the operating system. Pictures, movies, songs can be encrypted by Horon, as well as documents, archives, text files, databases. Then, when the victim sees that they’ve lost access to their files, the criminals want them to hastily send them money with the hope that the files will be decrypted.

This is how crypto-extortionists have been filling their pockets for years now. Their efforts don’t always succeed, but overall, they’ve created quite a lucrative criminal business while causing harm to everyone affected.

Like most ransomware, Horon creates a ransom note, a text file that’s supposed to explain what happened and convince the victim to pay the ransom. In this case, the note is called _readme.txt and has the exact same message as the other STOP/DJVU viruses: Drume, Hrosas, Vesad.

ATTENTION!

Don’t worry my friend, you can return all your files!
All your files like photos, databases, documents and other important are encrypted with strongest encryption and unique key.
The only method of recovering files is to purchase decrypt tool and unique key for you.
This software will decrypt all your encrypted files.
What guarantees you have?
You can send one of your encrypted file from your PC and we decrypt it for free.
But we can decrypt only 1 file for free. File must not contain valuable information.
You can get and look video overview decrypt tool:
https://we. tl/t-8gklbDGTaZ
Price of private key and decrypt software is $980.
Discount 50% available if you contact us first 72 hours, that’s price for you is $490.
Please note that you’ll never restore your data without payment.
Check your e-mail “Spam” or “Junk” folder if you don’t get answer more than 6 hours.

The criminals also provide their e-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected], and @datarestore on Telegram with the expectation that victims will contact them.

Can the files be recovered?

It’s unlikely that the files can be recovered. Nowadays ransomware deletes or, more likely, encrypts backups that are stored on the infected computer, so it’s rare that system restore can help (though it’s worth trying anyway). Even data recovery might not yield any results (though it’s also worth trying). And the files probably can’t be decrypted because only Horon’s developers know the decryption keys, except for cases when Horon couldn’t communicate with the C&C servers, which are rare. A person known as @demonslay335 has been working on a program called STOPDecrypter (direct download) which might decrypt some files if he was able to discover the offline encryption keys, but that helps only a small portion of victims of Horon. You can save the files and periodically check nomoreransom.org for a free decryptor, but if it’s ever released at all, it might not be for a long time.

The best way to not lose your files to ransomware is to have a backup. Backups allow you to avoid stress caused by ransomware corrupting your data because you have a copy of your files that’s safe and secure. The important thing is to not allow your backup to be infected: don’t keep the backup connected to your computer for longer than necessary. If you have copies to restore your data from, you can get rid of Horon, replace the encrypted files, and use your computer as normal again.

How to remove Horon

Horon needs to be removed so that it doesn’t continue to encrypt your files, but you should see if any other viruses have infected your device, too. Sometimes STOP/DJVU ransomware is distributed together with other, worse malware, like a banking trojan. You can use a professional antivirus application like Spyhunter to make sure that there’s no malware left behind by Horon. You can check this guide if you’re unable to visit some websites online thanks to Horon.

How to recover Horon Ransomware encrypted files and remove the virus

Step 1. Restore system into last known good state using system restore

1. Reboot your computer to Safe Mode with Command Prompt:

for Windows 7 / Vista/ XP

• Start → Shutdown → Restart → OK.
• Press F8 key repeatedly until Advanced Boot Options window appears.
• Choose Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

for Windows 8 / 10

• Press Power at Windows login screen. Then press and hold Shift key and click Restart.
• Choose Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → Startup Settings and click Restart.
• When it loads, select Enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt from the list of Startup Settings.

 

2.Restore System files and settings.

• When Command Prompt mode loads, enter cd restore and press Enter.
• Then enter rstrui.exe and press Enter again.
• Click “Next” in the windows that appeared.
• Select one of the Restore Points that are available before Horon Ransomware has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Horon Ransomware

After restoring your system, it is recommended to scan your computer with an anti-malware program, like Spyhunter and remove all malicious files related to Horon Ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Horon Ransomware affected files using Shadow Volume Copies

If you do not use System Restore option on your operating system, there is a chance to use shadow copy snapshots. They store copies of your files that point of time when the system restore snapshot was created. Usually Horon Ransomware tries to delete all possible Shadow Volume Copies, so this methods may not work on all computers. However, it may fail to do so. Shadow Volume Copies are only available with Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. There are two ways to retrieve your files via Shadow Volume Copy. You can do it using native Windows Previous Versions or via Shadow Explorer. a) Native Windows Previous Versions Right-click on an encrypted file and select Properties → Previous versions tab. Now you will see all available copies of that particular file and the time when it was stored in a Shadow Volume Copy. Choose the version of the file you want to retrieve and click Copy if you want to save it to some directory of your own, or Restore if you want to replace existing, encrypted file. If you want to see the content of file first, just click Open.

b) Shadow Explorer It is a program that can be found online for free. You can download either a full or a portable version of Shadow Explorer. Open the program. On the left top corner select the drive where the file you are looking for is a stored. You will see all folders on that drive. To retrieve a whole folder, right-click on it and select “Export”. Then choose where you want it to be stored.

Step 4. Use Data Recovery programs to recover Horon Ransomware encrypted files

There are several data recovery programs that might recover encrypted files as well. This does not work in all cases but you can try this:

• We suggest using another PC and connect the infected hard drive as slave. It is still possible to do this on infected PC though.
• Download a data recovery program.
• Install and scan for recently deleted files.

Note: In many cases it is impossible to restore data files affected by modern ransomware. Thus I recommend using decent cloud backup software as precaution. We recommend checking out Carbonite, BackBlaze, CrashPlan or Mozy Home.