Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
Note! Your system might be affected by Mac Ransomware and other threats
Threats such as Mac Ransomware may be persistent. They tend to re-appear if not fully deleted. A malware removal tool like Combo Cleaner will help you to remove malicious programs, saving you the time and the struggle of tracking down numerous malicious files. Combo Cleaner’s scanner is free but the paid version is needed to remove the malware threats. Read Combo Cleaner’s EULA and Privacy Policy.
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
This article has been created to explain what are Mac ransomware types of viruses, how to remove them and how you can try and restore files, encrypted by such virus on your Mac.
Ransomware infections have been going around for some time now and they have been spreading at an alarming rate. What is interesting is that during the past few years we have also seen ransomware viruses designed to attack Mac systems as well. While some of the viruses like the
In case you haven?t heard ? the very first ransomware to successfully attack Mac has already surfaced the Web, spreading via the hacked Transmission BitTorrent client for Mac. The ransomware, dubbed KeRanger (Ransomware.OSX.KeRanger), has been identified as the very first...Read more
KeRanger we have also detected to directly encrypt the files on the Macs that were compromised. In this article we aim to explain in detail how you can deal with ransomware viruses for Macs and how you can try and recover your files if you have not made a backup.
How Does a Mac Ransomware Virus Encrypt Your Files
Encryption by theory is basically the process of enciphering data so that only users with access can unlock and read this data. This means that when a ransomware virus infects your Mac, it will run a set of scripts and processes that will attack the file structure of your files. Usually, there are a lot of encryption algorithms and they have evolved over the past few years, but the main ones in use by ransomware viruses are RSA (rivest-shamir adleman) and AES(advanced encryption standard) algorithms. They aim to either overwrite the file or delete it and create it’s encrypted copy on the victim’s compuer. Then, the ransomware virus creates a decryption key which is either a symmetric key or a private key. The newest trend with ransomware viruses nowadays is to use combination of several encryption algorithms to make decryption this more difficult. For more info on how ransomware encryption works, you can check the following article underneath:
Encrypted messages and ciphers have been around for quite some time now. Ever since the development of the first ciphering machine ? the Enigma, cryptography has been gaining popularity. In fact, it has become so popular, that the most widespread...Read more
Attention! Before starting to restore files on your Mac, you will need to make sure that it is secure first. This is why we recommend using an anti-malware scanner to detect and fully eliminate any malware that may currently be residing on your Mac. Such anti-malware tool also aims to ensure that future protection is available on your device.
How to Try and Recover Encrypted Files on Your Mac (Methods)
After we have explained to you what encryption is, now it is time to explain what options do you have to get them to work once again. In the accordion below, we have created different methods that aim to help you by explaining what you can do to try and recover your files. To lift your hope, we will say that based on the type of virus which demolished your files and on the situation at hand, you may recover all your files, but do not raise your hopes that high, because you may also not be able to recover your data. And before you begin reading about the decryption methods underneath, we recommend that you try and use the method that is most appropriate for your situation. Let’s start!
Method 1 – Restore Files via Data Recovery App
Method
By using a Data Recovery App.
Appropriate Situation
When there is no decryption available for the ransomware, but you can still use Windows to install and run software.
Instructions Difficulty
Easy
In some cases, the easiest methods to cope with file encryption is to go around it and focus on your Mac’s drive. In order for this to succeed, it is important that you should not refresh your Mac or wipe your drive anew, because this will significantly decrease your chances of recovering files. Furthermore, you should also know that there are many data recovery programs out there, but we have decided to use what we believe is a tool that is very capable of doing the job for you – Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery Pro. For more information on the program, you can read our software review of it underneath:
What is Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery Professional? How to recover your files, using Stellar Mac Data Recovery? Software Review of Mac Data Recovery.
Step 2: Open the downloaded file on you Mac’s Browser.
Step 3: Install Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery. Accept any agreements if prompted.
Step 4: Wait for the program to start, after which select what types of files you wish to recover and click Next:
Step 5: Select the recovery location to an external drive or your default Macintosh Hard Drive (Macintosh HD) and click on Scan:
Step 6: Select the disk which you want to scan by clicking on It to mark it. You can also select an external drive which is affected and you can also tick the “Deep Scan” option which will take significantly more time, but will look to recover files in higher detail and we highly recommend ticking it. After you have selected your preferences, click on the Scan button:
Step 7: Wait for the scan to complete. It may take some time:
Step 8: After the scan has finished, simply select the files you want to recover and then click on the “Recover” button:
At this point, the program will begin recovering your files and when it has finished in doing that, it will notify you of this by asking you where you want to save a backup copy.
Method 2 – Restore Files via iCloud Backup
Method
By using Apple iCloud.
Appropriate Situation
When you have copies of your files in iCloud drive.
Instructions Difficulty
Easy
Step 1: Sign in to iCloud.
Step 2: Open the Settings.
Step 3: When you enter the Settings, scroll down and you will see the the “Advanced” menu. On it, click on “Restore Files”, like shown below:
Step 4: You will see a list of files to restore. Mark them with your mouse and then click on “Restore”.
Step 5: Wait for iCloud to restore your files and after it’s ready click on “Done”.
After the recovery is complete, you should be able to find the restored files on your iCloud drive. This can also help if you have accidentally deleted files from your iCloud drive as well.
Method 3: Restore files backed up with Time Machine on Mac
Method
By using Apple Time Machine
Appropriate Situation
When you have setup Time Machine.
Instructions Difficulty
Easy
Step 1: Open Time Machine by clicking on the refresh icon on the top right and clicking on “Enter Time Machine”.
Step 2: Either navigate to previous versions of your Mac in different time or choose a restore point from the bars on the bottom right, next to the navigation arrows:
Step 3: Select a file, you want to restore by marking it with your mouse. Use the bottom-right arrows to select the date from which you want to restore it. After you have done this, click on the Restore button on the bottom right of your screen and the files will automatically restore:
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
This article has been created to explain what are Mac ransomware types of viruses, how to remove them and how you can try and restore files, encrypted by such virus on your Mac.
