StupidJapan Virus – How to Remove It

Martin Beltov

Martin graduated with a degree in Publishing from Sofia University. As a cyber security enthusiast he enjoys writing about the latest threats and mechanisms of intrusion.

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This article will aid you to remove StupidJapan Virus. Follow the ransomware removal instructions provided at the end of the article.

StupidJapan Virus is one that encrypts your data and demands money as a ransom to get it restored. The StupidJapan Virus will leave ransomware instructions as a lockscreen instance thereby making it impossible to interact with the computer in an ordinary way. Keep on reading the article and see how you could try to potentially recover some of your locked files and data.

Threat Summary

Name	StupidJapan
Type	Ransomware, Cryptovirus
Short Description	The ransomware will demands a ransom sum to be paid to allegedly recover the computer.
Symptoms	The ransomware will install a lockscreen window payment instructions.
Distribution Method	Spam Emails, Email Attachments
Detection Tool	See If Your System Has Been Affected by StupidJapan Download Malware Removal Tool
User Experience	Join Our Forum to Discuss StupidJapan.
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.

StupidJapan Virus – Distribution Techniques

We have received security reports of a dangerous new infection carrying the StupidJapan virus. The collected releases of this ransomware have been identified in an ongoing attack campaign. So far the number of collected samples are low in number which does not give out which is the main method of distribution. We anticipate that once the attacks are launched at a larger scale the infections will utilize several of the most popular techniques.

Many ransomware threats like the StupidJapan virus are spread via email SPAM messages which utilize various social engineering techniques. They are created in a way which impersonates popular services or companies. The infected files can be either linked or attached directly to the messages.

Another similar tactic relies on the creation of web sites that impersonate download portals or vendor pages. These two techniques are also used to spread infected payloads of which there are two main types:

• Infected Documents — The hackers can craft documents of all popular types: presentations, spreadsheets, text documents and databases. When they are opened by users will be asked to enable the built-in scripts. This will lead to the virus infection.
• Application Installers — The other popular infection method is the inclusion of the virus code in application installers across all popular software that is downloaded by end users: productivity, office tools, creativity suites and system utilities.

Large-scale infection campaigns can be caused by the use of browser hijackers which are dangerous extensions made for the most popular web browsers. They are frequently uploaded to their relevant plugin repositories with fake user reviews and developer credentials. The descriptions offered often promise feature additions and performance optimizations. As soon as they are installed the hijacker will deliver the ransomware code along with the execution of other commands as configured by the hackers.

All virus-related files can also be spread via file-sharing networks like BitTorrent. They are used to share both legitimate content and pirate versions of both software and multimedia files.

StupidJapan Virus – Detailed Analysis

The StupidJapan virus does not appear to originate from any of the known malware families. This probably means that the hackers have made it by themselves or have commissioned it through an order made in the hacker underground markets.

The ransomware seems to target mainly English-speaking users, the limited number of launched attacks suggest that the captured samples are merely early versions or a test release. We anticipate that future updates to its code will add many more additions to its code base. At the moment only the encryption module is present.

Further updates will probably incorporate a traditional infection pattern. Once the virus code has infiltrated the machine it will launch a data harvesting component. Using its built-in engine it can scan and extract contents from the hard drive, operating system and memory that is grouped into two main categories:

• Private Information — The engine will hijack data that can directly expose the identity of the users: their name, address, phone number and any stored account credentials. This includes all popular forms such as username, password, email address and secret question & answer combination.
• Machine ID Information — The collected data can also include such as operating system conditions, hardware components information and other user regional settings. They are fed through a special algorithms that computes an unique machine ID which is assigned to every different machine.

This information can be sent to the hackers using a network connection or used by another component called security bypass — it will scan for the presence of security software and services that can block the virus activity. The list may include most popular anti-virus products, firewalls and debug environments.

When these two modules have finished running the infection engine will be able to access the whole system. This allows them to carry out various changes such as the following:

• Persistent Installation — The StupidJapan virus can be installed in a persistent way which will automatically start the ransomware as soon as the computer is launched. Modifications to the boot settings and system configuration will make it very hard to remove using manual methods. This option can also disable the boot recovery menu.
• Windows Registry Changes — Modifications to existing values inside the Windows Registry can lead to problems both to the operating system, its services and any third-party installed applications. This can disable certain functions or altogether make it impossible to start them. Other consequences include serious system stability issues.
• Trojan Horse Infection — If a Trojan virus infection is configured as an additional payload delivery the client will establish a secure connection to a hacker-controlled server. It will allow the hacker operators to spy on the users, steal their files and take over control of the machines at any given time.
• Additional Payload Delivery — Other threats can be delivered to the infected machines include all popular forms of malware.

Some of the dangerous consequences of having such ransomware installed is their ability to delete system data which makes recovery much more difficult. Possible consequences include the deletion of System Backups and Shadow Volume Copies. In such cases the use of a professional-grade backup and recovery software must be used, refer to our instructions for more information.

Ransomware infections of this type can lead to the installation of malware such as cryptocurrency miners which will take advantage of the available system resources in order to download and execute resources-intensive tasks. Once the completed ones are reported to their relevant servers the hacker operators will receive digital currency directly into their wallets.

The other major threat that is combined often with ransomware is the delivery of browser hijackers. They represent malicious plugins made for the most popular web browsers which will trigger redirects to hacker-controlled sites, hijack data and change the browser settings.

Further updates may bring other changes to the infected computers.

StupidJapan Virus – Encryption Process

When all preliminary components have finished executing the encryption engine will be started. As these are test releases their ransomware component was switched off. The future versions will probably use a built-in list of target file type extensions. An example one is the following:

• Archives
• Backups
• Documents
• Music
• Videos
• Photos

When the encryption has completed a lockscreen instance will be shown to the victims. This replaces the traditional ransomware note technique by “locking out” the users. As long as the StupidJapan virus is installed on the victim machines it will show an application frame that reads the following message:

Are You Stupid Japan?
Let’s have yours.
The facts are being heard.
Do not regret it later and apologize quickly!
What to do.
Your personality will be known to the world as garbage.
I apologize to the Republic of Korea officially sorry!

Remove StupidJapan Virus and Try to Restore Data

If your computer system got infected with the StupidJapan ransomware virus, you should have a bit of experience in removing malware. You should get rid of this ransomware as quickly as possible before it can have the chance to spread further and infect other computers. You should remove the ransomware and follow the step-by-step instructions guide provided below.

Note! Your computer system may be affected by StupidJapan and other threats.
Scan Your PC with SpyHunter
SpyHunter is a powerful malware removal tool designed to help users with in-depth system security analysis, detection and removal of threats such as StupidJapan.
Keep in mind, that SpyHunter’s scanner is only for malware detection. If SpyHunter detects malware on your PC, you will need to purchase SpyHunter’s malware removal tool to remove the malware threats. Read our SpyHunter 5 review. Click on the corresponding links to check SpyHunter’s EULA, Privacy Policy and Threat Assessment Criteria.

To remove StupidJapan follow these steps:

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

OFFER

Manual Removal Usually Takes Time and You Risk Damaging Your Files If Not Careful!

We Recommend To Scan Your PC with SpyHunter

Keep in mind, that SpyHunter’s scanner is only for malware detection. If SpyHunter detects malware on your PC, you will need to purchase SpyHunter’s malware removal tool to remove the malware threats. Read our SpyHunter 5 review. Click on the corresponding links to check SpyHunter’s EULA, Privacy Policy and Threat Assessment Criteria

Boot Your PC Into Safe Mode

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

For Windows XP, Vista and 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 up the Start Menu.

Step 2: Click on the Power button (for Windows 8 it is the little arrow next to the “Shut Down” button) and whilst holding down “Shift” click on Restart.

Step 3: After reboot, a blue menu with options will appear. From them you should choose Troubleshoot.

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

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

Step 6: From the Startup Settings menu, click on Restart.

Step 7: A menu will appear upon reboot. You can choose any of the three Safe Mode options by pressing its corresponding number and the machine will restart.

Some malicious scripts may modify the registry entries on your computer to change different settings. This is why cleaning your Windows Registry Database is recommended. Since the tutorial on how to do this is a bit long and tampering with registries could damage your computer if not done properly you should refer and follow our instructive article about fixing registry entries, especially if you are unexperienced in that area.

2. Find files created by StupidJapan on your PC

Find files created by StupidJapan

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

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.

IMPORTANT!
Before starting the Automatic Removal below, please boot back into Normal mode, in case you are currently in Safe Mode.
This will enable you to install and use SpyHunter 5 successfully.

Use SpyHunter to scan for malware and unwanted programs

3. Scan for malware and unwanted programs with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool

Scan your PC and Remove StupidJapan with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool and back up your data

1. Install SpyHunter to scan for StupidJapan and remove them.2. Scan with SpyHunter, Detect and Remove StupidJapan. Back up your data to secure it from malware in the future.

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

Download

Malware Removal Tool

It is 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. Click on the corresponding links to check SpyHunter’s EULA, Privacy Policy and Threat Assessment Criteria.

Step 2: Guide yourself by the download instructions provided for each browser.

Step 3: After you have installed SpyHunter, wait for it to update automatically.

Step 1: After the update process has finished, click on the ‘Malware/PC Scan’ tab. A new window will appear. Click on ‘Start Scan’.

Step 2: After SpyHunter has finished scanning your PC for any files of the associated threat and found them, you can try to get them removed automatically and permanently by clicking on the ‘Next’ button.

Step 3: If any threats have been removed, it is highly recommended to restart your PC.

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 with a cloud backup solution and insure your files against any type of loss, even from the most severe threats. We recommend you to read more about it and to download SOS Online Backup .

SOS Online Backup

4. Try to Restore files encrypted by StupidJapan

Try to Restore Files Encrypted by StupidJapan

Ransomware infections and StupidJapan aim to encrypt your files using an encryption algorithm which may be very difficult to 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 these methods may not be 100% effective but may also help you a little or a lot in different situations.

Method 1: Scanning your drive’s sectors by using Data Recovery software.
Another method for 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 Data Recovery Technicians License(Pro version with more features)
• Stellar Windows Data Recovery
• Stellar 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

Method 3: Using Shadow Explorer

To restore your data in case you have backup set up, it is important to check for Volume Shadow Copies, if ransomware has not deleted them, in Windows using the below software:

• Shadow Explorer

Method 4: Finding the decryption key while the cryptovirus sends it over a network via a sniffing tool.

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

Martin Beltov

Martin graduated with a degree in Publishing from Sofia University. As a cyber security enthusiast he enjoys writing about the latest threats and mechanisms of intrusion.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Martin Beltov

Martin graduated with a degree in Publishing from Sofia University. As a cyber security enthusiast he enjoys writing about the latest threats and mechanisms of intrusion.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me: