Gatz Virus

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*Gatz is a variant of Stop/DJVU. Source of claim SH can remove it

Gatz

Gatz is a virus threat of the file-locking variety of Ransomware and its job is to restrict the access to your important data. The criminals behind Gatz want you to send them  money and will not restore the access to your files until you do so.

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The Ransomware viruses are different from most other forms of cyber threats and that’s likely the reason they have grown into such a major issue. One thing that is important to know about this malicious software type is the fact that no security software programs have been created so far to always effectively take care of this sort of infections. What we need to make clear here is the fact that the Ransomware viruses normally do not directly inflict damage upon anything that is on the victim’s PC. As a result, the processes ran by those infections are not seen as unwanted by the majority of popular security applications. The way a Ransomware threat actually causes harm is by placing a very complex and unbreakable encryption to your personal files and blackmailing you to pay ransom to decrypt them. The encryption the malware uses to prevent you from getting to your files never really harms the data itself. To put it another way, the dangerous computer virus is able to utilize a non-harmful data-protection technique and exploit it for a shady task such as blackmailing. On this page, we will focus on one of the latest representatives of this fearful category of security threats, which goes under the name of Gatz . This particular infection is referred to as a Ransomware cryptovirus due to its ability to secretly lock a set of personal files and render it inaccessible without the application of a special decryption key.

The Gatz virus

The Gatz virus is an advanced form of malware that, instead of harming your computer, will encrypt your files to make them inaccessible. Accordign to the creators of the Gatz virus, you won’t be able to recover your files until you pay them a ransom.

In the event your computer gets infiltrated by this Ransomware, starting to panic and immediately agreeing to the hacker’s demands is certainly not something that you want to do. Because of this, we’ve created this article – to keep you well informed about the possible courses of action, which do not involve giving your money to some anonymous hackers. One crucial thing to be aware of if you’ve been infected by a virus such as Gatz is the fact that, in most of the cases, the money for the ransom will likely be required in the form of bitcoins.

The Gatz file decryption

The Gatz file decryption is a process only possible if you have the corresponding key to unlock the inaccessible files. The key for the Gatz file decryption can supposedly be obtained if the user pays a ransom in BitCoins to the criminals behind the virus.

Gatz File
Screenshot of the Gatz file virus ransomware

The reason why bitcoins are so popular is related to the fact that this cryptocurrency cannot be traced which enables the online hacker to maintain their anonymity. The fact is that there aren’t many examples where online hackers who make use of Ransomware to blackmail their victims have been held responsible for their misdeeds. On the other hand, there are plenty of instances of people who have executed the ransom payment without being sent the key for the encryption of their files. Having said that, it should be fairly clear why we normally recommend our readers to seek a substitute for the money payment. Because of this, we have also developed a manual guide that includes information regarding how you can remove Gatz, Gash, Qore and perhaps restore some of your files without the need to pay the demanded ransom. Regrettably, we simply cannot offer you a guarantee that the steps from the guide will work in a hundred percent of the instances of Ransomware invasions. Nonetheless it is obviously a far better method as opposed to carrying out the ransom payment.

SUMMARY:

NameGatz
TypeRansomware
Detection Tool

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*Gatz is a variant of Stop/DJVU. Source of claim SH can remove it

Remove Gatz Ransomware


Step1

You may need to restart your computer numerous times over the next few steps in order to completely delete all Gatz-related information from the system. Therefore, it is recommended that you bookmark this page or open it on another device before proceeding in order to have easy access to the removal instructions.

It is also important that you restart your computer in Safe Mode before beginning the ransomware cleanup process on your PC. If you require assistance with this, please visit this page and follow the instructions provided there. Once the system has successfully rebooted in Safe Mode, you may return to this page and proceed with the rest steps of the removal process.

Step2

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

*Gatz is a variant of Stop/DJVU. Source of claim SH can remove it

The removal of a ransomware infection, such as Gatz, can be challenging since this malware may silently run one or more harmful processes in the background without necessarily showing any visible symptoms that can give it away. Therefore, in order to get rid of such an infection, the most effective method is to scan your system for any malicious processes that are running in the background and terminate them immediately if you find any.

Start the Windows Task Manager by pressing the CTRL key, SHIFT key, and ESC key on your keyboard at the same time. Then look under the Processes tab to see if there are any potentially hazardous processes running on your computer. It is possible that the ransomware will pose as a legitimate system process in order to avoid detection.

Malicious processes, in general, can consume a significant amount of memory and CPU power, which can be a warning sign for you. Given the difficulty in determining whether a process is dangerous simply by looking at it, a professional scanner should be used to scan the files associated with the process. Select Open File Location from the context menu by right-clicking on the suspicious process in order to view these files.

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Then, to scan the files associated with the suspicious process, use the free online virus scanner provided below:

Each file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracy
This scanner is free and will always remain free for our website's users.
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    As soon as a virus scanner detects that a file is contaminated or contains malicious code, the first thing you should do is end the process that is associated with the file being examined. To end the process, right-click on it and select End process from the options.

    To ensure that your computer is not infected with malware, use the scanner provided on this page to scan any processes that you suspect are harmful until you are confident that there is nothing malicious operating on your system.

    Step3

    If you think that your computer has been hacked, please follow the instructions outlined below:

    Using your keyboard, press Windows key and R, then carefully copy the line below in the Run box and press Enter on your keyboard:

    notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts

    A Notepad file titled Hosts should appear on your computer’s screen as a result of this action. If you’ve been hacked, a number of unusual IP addresses will appear beneath Localhost in the text, as shown in the image:

    hosts_opt (1)

    Those IP addresses that you believe are suspicious should be reported in the comments section so that we can investigate them and notify you if they are required to be deleted.

    Another location to check for potentially dangerous entries associated with Gatz is the Startup tab in System Configuration. In order to ensure that it begins executing its harmful agenda as soon as the computer is booted up, ransomware, such as this one, may include startup components in your system configurations.

    msconfig_opt

    System Configuration can be accessed by typing msconfig into the Start menu search bar and pressing Enter to launch the program. Next, navigate to the Startup tab and look for anything unusual, such as items with an “Unknown” manufacturer or strange names. If you suspect that a particular entry is a component of the infection, uncheck its checkmark box to disable it. After that, you may save your changes by clicking the OK button on the bottom right corner of the screen.

    Step4

    *Gatz is a variant of Stop/DJVU. Source of claim SH can remove it

    Afterwards, you can scan your computer’s registry for any ransomware entries that have been added there, and delete any potentially hazardous items that you come across.

    Maintaining your focus is essential throughout this stage, since removing files and directories that are not associated with Gatz may do considerable damage to your system and the software that is installed on it. To eliminate this possibility, we recommend that you use a professional malware removal program, such as the one accessible on our website, or another reputable application that specializes in malware removal.

    If you still prefer to stick to the manual removal method, simply type Regedit in the Start menu search field and press Enter to start the Registry Editor.

    As soon as the Registry Editor appears on the screen, hold down the CTRL and F keys simultaneously and type the name of the malware into the Find dialog box. After that, use the Find Next button to check the registry for any items that have the same name as the one you just entered.

    Once you remove any dangerous entries from the registry, use the same Start menu search field to enter the following lines one by one and press Enter after each to open it:

    1. %AppData%
    2. %LocalAppData%
    3. %ProgramData%
    4. %WinDir%
    5. %Temp%

    Check each place for suspicious folders and files that have been created around the time of the ransomware attack, and delete them if you discover any suspicious files or folders. Keep an eye out for anything else that might be associated with the infection and do some investigation before eliminating it.

    If Gatz has created any temporary files, delete them all from the Temp folder to ensure that they are not present in your system. It would be best if you select everything in Temp and delete it.

    Step5

    How to Decrypt Gatz files

    Depending on the virus version, decrypting encrypted data may necessitate a whole different approach. Information regarding the particular version of the ransomware that has infected you can be gained from the extensions of the files that have been encrypted.

    However, in order to have a chance of successfully decrypt any data, you must first ensure that any files connected with the ransomware have been removed from your computer. Gatz and other malware can be deleted from your computer with the help of professional anti-virus software, which can be found through the links provided on this page.

    New Djvu Ransomware

    The STOP Djvu ransomware variant is the most recent form of the Djvu ransomware variants. This threat encrypts files by appending the .Gatz suffixes to their filenames. According to the information available at the time of publication of this article, only files encrypted with an offline key are currently decryptable. If you’re interested in seeing whether a decryption program can assist you in recovering your data, here’s a link to one that you might want to check out:

    https://www.emsisoft.com/ransomware-decryption-tools/stop-djvu

    Decryption

    It is possible to download the STOPDjvu.exe decryptor by selecting Download button from the specified URL. 

    To start the decryptor, select “Run as Administrator” and then press the Yes button. Take a few minutes to go through the license agreement and the brief instructions, and then click the Decrypt button to begin the process of decrypting your data. Please keep in mind that, in some cases, data encrypted using unknown offline keys or online encryption may be impossible to decrypt with this decryptor due to technical limitations.

    If you require assistance in ensuring that Gatz has been successfully deleted, you can download and run the anti-virus software linked on this page, or you can run any suspicious-looking files via the free online virus scanner. In addition, if you have any queries, please feel free to ask them in the comments section below, and we will do our best to assist you.

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    About the author

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    Brandon Skies

    Brandon is a researcher and content creator in the fields of cyber-security and virtual privacy. Years of experience enable him to provide readers with important information and adequate solutions for the latest software and malware problems.

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