Pola Ransomware - How to remove

Ransomware Pola is a dangerous malware infection. It encrypts files and adds the extension “.pola” to their names. It gets installed by infected programs, usually pirated ones. Besides breaking your data, it also installs adware and spyware infections that cause their own problems.

All this makes Pola ransomware very dangerous. It needs to be removed and so do the other infections in order for you to be able to use your computer normally again.

But deleting Pola doesn’t fix the damage that it’s done, most importantly – the data that it broke remains broken. Luckily, there are a few ways in which is might be possible to bring back some of it.

In short about Pola ransomware:

Threat type	Ransomware.
Effects of Pola ransomware	It encrypts various files and appends “.pola” to their names, it deletes backups, it changes various settings, breaks antivirus programs.
How to get your files back	Get it back from backups, wait for a decryptor, recover deleted data, repair the files manually.
How to remove Pola ransomware	Fix the settings required to repair your antivirus program, remove Pola and other malware with antivirus tools (Spyhunter, others).

How to recognize Pola ransomware

Pola ransomware gets installed by infected programs, usually cracks that you can download on pirating sites. It gets downloaded and installed by the infected program, together with other viruses: adware, spyware, malicious browser extensions, etc.

Once Pola is installed, it changes various settings of your PC (for instance, it disables your Task Manager), disables as much security as possible, and deletes the backups that it can find.

Then, it scans your computer for files to encrypt: images, documents, text files, archives, and others. It leaves alone the operating system and various programs, like your browsers. This does noticeably slow down your computer, so, to throw off suspicion, Pola might show a fake Windows Update window.

Once it’s done, the encrypted files are encrypted, which means that their contents are scrambled into something random. The names of these files also change – they now have “.pola” at the ends of their names.

And finally, Pola creates ransom notes called “_readme.txt” in which it provides the email addresses to contact the extortionists responsible for this infection. To get the information and tools to restore your data, you’re told to pay from $490 to $980. This is the “ransom” part of the Pola ransomware.

Can you get your data back?

Pola ransomware is part of a family called Djvu. It and its siblings, like Wbxd, Coos, and many others are very similar. This means that ransomware experts have already looked into them and learned as much as can be learned. This means that there’s no easy and simple way to fix the files that Pola encrypted.

If you have a backup of your files, then you only need to clean your computer of malware and you’ll be fine. But what if your only copies of valuable files were broken by Pola? You have a few options, though none of them are guaranteed to work:

• Decryption for free.
• Data recovery tools.
• File repair.

Plus, it’s possible that Pola failed to encrypt some of your files, so make sure to check all of your important folders. It’s also possible that you’ve got some of your files backed up online without realizing it. One Drive, email attachments, photos on social media sites – consider where you might have uploaded some of your dearest photos and documents.

The antivirus company Emsisoft maintains and updates a free tool that can tell you if there’s hope to decrypt your files: Emsisoft.com.

Data recovery refers to the process of undeleting data that’s still physically present on your drives. It might help you bring back some of the data that was lost after Pola’s attack.

Finally, you might be able to repair those files that Pola encrypted only partially (likely, all the big media files, such as photographs). Repaired photos do lose some data, though.

Most importantly, don’t fall for scammers. If you look for advice online, be careful of anyone who promises to fix your files and asks you to pay in advance. There’s no way to reverse Pola’s encryption without having the decryption key – which is only known to the people responsible for this infection.

How to remove Pola ransomware

Use an antivirus program, such as Spyhunter, to delete Pola and all the viruses that came with it.

Before that, you might need to fix the Task Manager problem and repair your hosts file to unblock cybersecurity websites. Then, use safe mode to effectively delete all malware.

Once that’s done, you can restore your files from a backup. Don’t forget to reset your passwords if any spyware infections were found on your device.

Important -- edit the hosts file to unblock security websites

TL DR : The hosts file is edited to block security sites Before the virus can be removed, it's necessary to fix the hosts file (the file which controls which addresses connect to which IPs). That is the reason the majority of security websites is inaccessible when infected with this particular parasite. This infection edits this file to stop certain websites, including anti-malware download sites, from being accessed from the infected computer, making browsers return the "This site can't be reached" error. Luckily, it's trivial to fix the file and remove the edits that were made to it.

Find and edit the hosts file

The hosts file can be found on C:/Windows/System32/Drivers/etc/hosts. If you don't see it, change the settings to see hidden files.

1. In the Start Menu, search for Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel, find Appearance and Personalization.
3. Select Folder Options.
4. Open the View tab.
5. Open Advanced settings.
6. Select "Show hidden files...".
7. Select OK.

Open this file with administrator privileges.

1. Open the Start Menu and enter "notepad".
2. When Notepad shows up in the result, right-click on it.
3. In the menu, choose "Run as administrator"
4. File->Open and browse for the hosts file.

The hosts file should look like this: Delete additional lines that they connect various domain names to the wrong IP address. Save the file.

Download and run the antivirus program

After that, download antivirus programs and use them to remove the ransomware, the trojan, and other malware. Spyhunter (https://www.2-viruses.com/reviews/spyhunter/dwnld/).

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to recover Pola 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 Pola Ransomware has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of Pola 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 Pola Ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore Pola 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 Pola 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 Pola 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.