Syrk Ransomware - How to remove

Syrk Ransomware is a file-encrypting virus that made waves recently for pretending to be a Fortnite cheat tool. Once it’s tricked the victim to download it, it makes a demand to be contacted so that the victim can send money to the developers of Syrk in the hopes of being freed from this malware.

Syrk is file-encrypting ransomware, which is one of the scariest types of malware — especially to those whose only copies of some files got encrypted. Luckily, the encryption wasn’t implemented securely enough and the researchers at Emsisoft created a free decrypter for the files locked by Syrk. This is a better outcome than most ransomware victims can expect — you only need to clean your computer of Syrk, restore the files with Emsisoft’s tool, and you should be good to go.

Take the infection as a lesson and secure your computer, improve your browsing habits, and set up backups. Most ransomware is not decryptable for free.

How does Syrk work?

Once Syrk starts running, it disables the security software, such as Windows Defender. It also stops Task Manager from running so that you can’t quit suspicious processes easily. It’s done by other file-lockers, like Annabelle and VirLock. This is needed to make sure that the victim can’t terminate the virus, as antivirus programs can usually recognize ransomware well.

Syrk encrypts the files on your computer that it expects to be valuable and irreplaceable, either to your work, studies, or personal life. Photos, videos, music, and documents, archives, various text files aren’t spared. They get the “.Syrk” extension attached to their names, while their internals are scrambled by a cryptographic algorithm.

After this, a pop-up ransom note is displayed. Syrk’s developers give their email address ([email protected]) and threaten that the files in specific folders will be deleted after a certain timer runs out.

*Your personal files are being encrypted by Syrk Malware. Your photos, videos, documents, etc… the only way to recover it is to contact this email: ([email protected]) and submit your id.

After paying, you will be sent a password that will be used to decrypt your files
if you don’t do these actions before the timer expires your files start to be deleted
at the first timer the files in the photo folder will be deleted
at the second timer the files in the desktop folder will be deleted
at the third timer the files in the document folder will be deleted.

So hurry up, TIME FLOWS!!!!

To see your Id click on *Show my ID*

How Syrk spreads

Malware is often released online, disguised as a desired file that everyone wants to download. If you see a film or a game available for download before it’s officially released, that’s probably malware being distributed. Cheat tools, too — the recent Aurora Cheat Tool for Apex Legends was actually a trojan.

Syrk got famous because it used a Fortnite cheat tool as its disguise. Fortnite is an immensely popular game and this was a way for Syrk’s developers to make sure that they would infect a lot of computers quickly. If might have also backfired by attracting the attention of various cybersecurity researchers.

Links to malware are distributed online, in social media, in forums — sometimes even by trusted sources. The malware can be uploaded to be downloaded, and even Syrk is discovered and taken down quickly, it would already have infected many people.

It’s just very important to scan every file before running it and to not dismiss warnings before looking into them. Anti-malware applications have different categories for malicious programs that you might consider safe (cracks, cheat engines, miners), and obvious malware (trojans, file-encrypting ransomware). Additionally, make sure that your Windows is configured to show file extensions so that malicious files can’t hide their extensions.

How to remove Syrk

Syrk is a normal virus that can be detected and quarantined by almost any professional anti-malware tool, such as Spyhunter. It’s just important to make sure that you update everything and check your system files to undo some of the damage that Syrk did to your cybersecurity.

By the way, besides the Emsisoft decrypter, there exists a way to use Syrk’s built-in decrypter to recover your files. Just type “C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\” in the address bar in File Explorer and find either “-pw+.txt” or “+dp-.txt”, open the file, and copy the key in it. Then press the “Show My ID” button in the Syrk pop-up, where you will be able to enter the key to decrypt your files. This method, discovered by security researchers, is unique to Syrk — most ransomware does not ship with the decryptor and the decryption keys. But, considering how imperfect Syrk is, there could be some technical difficulties with recovering your files this way, so sticking to Emsisoft’s decrypter might be a bit safer.

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