This article aims to aid you in removing Red Alert virus fully. Follow the ransomware removal instructions at the end of the article.

Red Alert virus is a ransomware that gets its name from the ransom note it generates. The cryptovirus will encrypt your files and put the extension .locked to each and every one of them. The encryption algorithm that is used is AES. Researchers believe that it is a variant of HiddenTear. To see how you can try to restore your files read the article carefully.

Threat Summary

Name	Red Alert
Type	Ransomware, Cryptovirus
Short Description	The ransomware will encrypt your files and afterward display a ransom note with instructions for payment.
Symptoms	The ransomware will encrypt your files and put the extension .locked to each one of them.
Distribution Method	Spam Emails, Email Attachments
Detection Tool	See If Your System Has Been Affected by Red Alert Download Malware Removal Tool
User Experience	Join Our Forum to Discuss Red Alert.
Data Recovery Tool	Windows Data Recovery by Stellar Phoenix Notice! This product scans your drive sectors to recover lost files and it may not recover 100% of the encrypted files, but only few of them, depending on the situation and whether or not you have reformatted your drive.

Red Alert Virus – Infection

Red Alert ransomware could spread its infection using many different ways. One of those ways is by spreading the payload as an executable file. After that .exe file is opened, the malicious script inside it will infect your computer system. The executable might be presented as a crack file for the games of the NFS (Need for Speed) series. The file can also be presented as ”Microsoft-Corporation.exe”. You can view the analysis of that particular executable in question that contains the payload script, from the below screenshot of the VirusTotal website:

Red Alert ransomware could be spreading its payload on social media services and sites for file-sharing. The malicious script could be hidden inside the install setup of applications, which are advertised as helpful and legitimate. Do not just open files coming from suspicious sources, links and e-mails. First, scan them with security software and check their size and signatures for anything that seems out of the ordinary. You should give a read to the tips for ransomware prevention topic in our forum.

Red Alert Virus – Details

Red Alert virus is a ransomware which is named after the name given in the ransom message it provides – Red Alert. It is a variant of the open-source ransomware project HiddenTear.

Right after Red Alert ransomware encrypts your files it will place the extension .locked as the extension on each file that is locked. The ransomware is very likely to create entries in the Windows Registry to achieve some persistence. Those registry entries could make the cryptovirus start automatically with each boot of the Windows operating system.

The following files are associated with the ransom note, instructions and the wallpaper that is put as your desktop background after file encryption:

• MESSAGE.txt
• nouaISJakoKASasdij.txt
• wiASJiAjsKOQWEKnsyass.txt
• ransom.jpg

When the process of encryption of your files is complete, an image will be placed as a wallpaper on your desktop background with the ransom instructions. You can see the ransom message from the screenshot right here below:

The ransom note reads the following:

RED ALERT
YOUR FILES HAS BEEN BLOCKED
All Your Files Has been Blocked !!!
To you unlock the files access “MESSAGE” file and follow the instructions or we will delete ALL your personal archives.
YOUR FILES HAS BEEN BLOCKED

The BitCoin address that is provided for payment is 13h4GSyvr8Zno2nGrXqVtsEEn8DGw8oGXB. However, that data is for informative purposes only. You should NOT even consider of paying the criminals any amount of money. That would only result in the cyber crooks making more viruses with that money or encourage them of doing more criminal activities. Besides, know that nobody can guarantee that your files will get recovered if you pay the demanded sum of money.

The Red Alert ransomware encrypts files and appends the .locked extension to each and every one of them. The encryption algorithm which is used is believed to be AES and malware researchers state that the ransomware is a variant of the HiddenTear open-source project. A list with extensions of files which the virus searches to encrypt is not available, but you can see some of these extensions below:

→.doc, .docx, .pdf, .db, .jpg, .png, .ppt, .pptx, .txt, .xls, .xlsx

The Red Alert cryptovirus is very likely set to erase all Shadow Volume Copies from the Windows operating system by utilizing the command given here:

→vssadmin.exe delete shadows /all /Quiet

Read along and find out what types and methods you can try out to restore at least parts of your files.

Remove Red Alert Virus and Restore .locked Files

If your computer got infected with the Red Alert ransomware virus, you should have some experience in removing malware. You should get rid of this ransomware as fast as possible before it can have the chance to spread further and infect more computers. You should remove the ransomware and follow the step-by-step instructions guide given below. To see ways that you can try to recover your data, see the step titled 2. Restore files encrypted by Red Alert.

Manually delete Red Alert from your computer

Note! Substantial notification about the Red Alert threat: Manual removal of Red Alert requires interference with system files and registries. Thus, it can cause damage to your PC. Even if your computer skills are not at a professional level, don’t worry. You can do the removal yourself just in 5 minutes, using a malware removal tool.

1. Boot Your PC In Safe Mode to isolate and remove Red Alert files and objects

Boot Your PC Into Safe Mode

1. For Windows 7,XP and Vista. 2. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. Fix registry entries created by Red Alert on your PC.

For Windows XP, Vista, 7 systems:

1. Remove all CDs and DVDs, and then Restart your PC from the “Start” menu.
2. Select one of the two options provided below:

– For PCs with a single operating system: Press “F8” repeatedly after the first boot screen shows up during the restart of your computer. In case the Windows logo appears on the screen, you have to repeat the same task again.

– For PCs with multiple operating systems: Тhe arrow keys will help you select the operating system you prefer to start in Safe Mode. Press “F8” just as described for a single operating system.

3. As the “Advanced Boot Options” screen appears, select the Safe Mode option you want using the arrow keys. As you make your selection, press “Enter“.

4. Log on to your computer using your administrator account

While your computer is in Safe Mode, the words “Safe Mode” will appear in all four corners of your screen.

Step 1: Open the Start Menu

Step 2: Whilst holding down Shift button, click on Power and then click on Restart.
Step 3: After reboot, the aftermentioned menu will appear. From there you should choose Troubleshoot.

Step 4: You will see the Troubleshoot menu. From this menu you can choose Advanced Options.

Step 5: After the Advanced Options menu appears, click on Startup Settings.

Step 6: Click on Restart.

Step 7: A menu will appear upon reboot. You should choose Safe Mode by pressing its corresponding number and the machine will restart.

Some malicious scripts may modify the registry entries of your computer to change different settings. This is why manual clean up of your Windows Registry Database is strongly recommended. Since the tutorial on how to do this is a bit lenghty, we recommend following our instructive article about fixing registry entries.

2.Find malicious files created by Red Alert on your PC

Find malicious files created by Red Alert

1. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. 2. For Windows 7,XP and Vista.

For Newer Windows Operating Systems

Step 1:

On your keyboard press  + R and write explorer.exe in the Run text box and then click on the Ok button.

Step 2:

Click on your PC from the quick access bar. This is usually an icon with a monitor and its name is either “My Computer”, “My PC” or “This PC” or whatever you have named it.

Step 3:

Navigate to the search box in the top-right of your PC’s screen and type “fileextension:” and after which type the file extension. If you are looking for malicious executables, an example may be “fileextension:exe”. After doing that, leave a space and type the file name you believe the malware has created. Here is how it may appear if your file has been found:

N.B. We recommend to wait for the green loading bar in the navination box to fill up in case the PC is looking for the file and hasn’t found it yet.

For Older Windows Operating Systems

In older Windows OS’s the conventional approach should be the effective one:

Step 1:

Click on the Start Menu icon (usually on your bottom-left) and then choose the Search preference.

Step 2:

After the search window appears, choose More Advanced Options from the search assistant box. Another way is by clicking on All Files and Folders.

Step 3:

After that type the name of the file you are looking for and click on the Search button. This might take some time after which results will appear. If you have found the malicious file, you may copy or open its location by right-clicking on it.

Now you should be able to discover any file on Windows as long as it is on your hard drive and is not concealed via special software.

Automatically remove Red Alert by downloading an advanced anti-malware program

1. Remove Red Alert with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool and back up your data

Remove Red Alert with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool

1. Install SpyHunter to scan for and remove Red Alert.2. Scan with SpyHunter to Detect and Remove Red Alert. Back up your data to secure it against infections and file encryption by Red Alert in the future.

Step 1:Click on the “Download” button to proceed to SpyHunter’s download page.

Download

Malware Removal Tool

It is highly recommended to run a scan before purchasing the full version of the software to make sure that the current version of the malware can be detected by SpyHunter.

Step 2: Guide yourself by the download instructions provided for each browser.
Step 3: After you have installed SpyHunter, wait for it to automatically update.

Step1: After the update process has finished, click on the ‘Scan Computer Now’ button.

Step2: After SpyHunter has finished scanning your PC for any Red Alert files, click on the ‘Fix Threats’ button to remove them automatically and permanently.

Step3: Once the intrusions on your PC have been removed, it is highly recommended to restart it.

Back up your data to secure it against attacks in the future

IMPORTANT! Before reading the Windows backup instructions, we highly recommend to back up your data automatically with cloud backup and insure it against any type of data loss on your device, even the most severe. We recommend reading more about and downloading SOS Online Backup .

SOS Online Backup

2. Restore files encrypted by Red Alert

Restore Files Encrypted by Red Alert

Ransomware infections like Red Alert aim to encrypt your files using an encryption algorithm which may be very difficult to directly decrypt. This is why we have suggested several alternative methods that may help you go around direct decryption and try to restore your files. Bear in mind that they may not be 100% effective but they may help you little or a lot in some situations.

Method 1: Scanning your drive’s sectors by using Data Recovery software.
Another method of restoring your files is by trying to bring back your files via data recovery software. Here are some suggestions for preferred data recovery software solutions:

• Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery Technicians License(Pro version with more features)
• Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery
• Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery

Method 2: Trying Kaspersky and EmsiSoft’s decryptors.
If the first method does not work, we suggest trying to use decryptors for other ransomware viruses, in case your virus is a variant of them. The two primary developers of decryptors are Kaspersky and EmsiSoft, links to which we have provided below:

• Kaspersky Decryptors
• Emsisoft Decryptors

Urgent! It is strongly advisable to first remove the Red Alert threat before attempting any decryption, since it may interfere with system files and registries. You can do the removal yourself just in 5 minutes, using an advanced malware removal tool.

Method 3: Using Shadow Explorer

To restore your data in case you have backup set up, it is important to check for shadow copies in Windows using this software if ransomware has not deleted them:

• Shadow Explorer

Method 4: Finding Red Alert decryption key while it communicates it via a network sniffing software.

Another way to decrypt the files is by using a Network Sniffer to get the encryption key, while files are encrypted on your system. A Network Sniffer is a program and/or device monitoring data traveling over a network, such as its internet traffic and internet packets. If you have a sniffer set before the attack happened you might get information about the decryption key. See how-to instructions below:

Instructions on How to Find Decryption Key for Files Encrypted By Ransowmare

Optional: Using Alternative Anti-Malware Tools

Remove Red Alert Using Other Alternative Tools

STOPZilla Anti Malware

1. Download and Install STOPZilla Anti-malware to Scan for And Remove Red Alert.
Step 1: Download STOPZilla by clicking here.
Step 2: A pop-up window will appear. Click on the ‘Save File’ button. If it does not, click on the Download button and save it afterwards.

Step 3: After you have downloaded the setup, simply open it.
Step 4: The installer should appear. Click on the ‘Next’ button.

Step 5: Check the ‘I accept the agreement’ check circle if not checked if you accept it and click the ‘Next’ button once again.

Step 6: Review and click on the ‘Install’ button.

Step 7: After the installation process has completed click on the ‘Finish’ button.

2. Scan your PC with STOPZilla Anti Malware to remove all Red Alert associated files completely.
Step 1: Launch STOPZilla if you haven’t launched it after install.
Step 2: Wait for the software to automatically scan and then click on the ‘Repair Now’ button. If it does not scan automatically, click on the ‘Scan Now’ button.

Step 3: After the removal of all threats and associated objects, you should Restart your PC.

Berta Bilbao

Berta is the Editor-in-Chief of SensorsTechForum. She is a dedicated malware researcher, dreaming for a more secure cyber space.

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