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Tzw
One of the worst computer infections that you may face today is the Tzw cryptovirus. Tzw is a new ransomware program that has the ability to encrypt users’ personal files and add a weird file extension to their names so that they cannot be opened or used by any software.
The infection does this in order to gain leverage and then demand a ransom payment in exchange for a special key, which is needed to decrypt the locked information. To get into as many computers as possible, Tzw uses sophisticated techniques including exploit kits, malvertisements, spam messages, infected emails with malicious attachments, torrents, phishing pages and more. As most ransomware-based infections, this one uses a very complex encryption algorithm, which makes the targeted data useless immediately after it gets applied. The victims cannot open any of their personal files and are threatened by a scary ransom message that if they don’t follow the ransom payment instructions, they will lose their data forever.
The Tzw virus
As in most cases of ransomware infections, the Tzw virus gives instructions related to the ransom payment. According to the hackers behind the Tzw virus, this is the only way the victims can have their data decrypted.
Those who agree to pay are promised to receive a special decryption key from the criminals in order to reverse the secret encryption and to liberate their files. We need to warn you, though, that the decryption key that the creators of the virus are promoting may not even exist. The only safe way to recover your files is through a personal external backup.
If you don’t have a backup, you may also try one of the recovery methods we provide in the removal guide below. It is very important, however, to take actions to remove Tzw or Xallom from your system first and only then try any of the given file-recovery suggestions because if the ransomware is active and present on your computer, it may encrypt every backup source you connect and every file you manage to recover.
The .Tzw file
Unfortunately, infections with the .Tzw file are very difficult to deal with. And even if you manage to successfully remove the .Tzw file, there is still no guarantee about the future of your files.
And while the file-recovery methods shown above may work for some of you, there might be cases where the files may remain encrypted and inaccessible no matter what you do. In any case, it is better to remove the malware and return your computer to its previous state because it is ever a good idea to allow malware like this to stay in your machine. The fast and successful detection and elimination of the cryptovirus, however, may require professional help and that’s why it is a good idea to use a professional malware removal tool like the one in the guide below.
Perform a full system scan to make sure that the tool has detected and erased all threats associated with the ransomware or use the manual removal instructions if you know which files you need to delete. We do not recommend contacting the cyber criminals that have attacked you with Tzw and paying the ransom. These people are dishonest and the statements they make and the promises they give you cannot be trusted.
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Remove Tzw Ransomware
The key to a successful Tzw removal is planning ahead and thoroughly understanding each phase of the removal process. In this regard, one of the first things we recommend is to save this page with instructions on how to remove the ransomware as a bookmark in your browser.
The second thing that we recommend you is to restart your computer in Safe Mode by using the instructions from the link here. After you do that, you can proceed with removing Tzw as explained below.
WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!
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When a computer is infected with ransomware, malicious processes are silently running in the background, undetected by the user. In order to find these processes, open your Task Manager (CTRL + SHIFT + ESC), select the Processes tab, and look for any suspicious-looking processes. These could be processes that consume a large amount of CPU or Memory, have unusual names, or can’t be related to any of the programs that you have installed on your PC. Using your right-click, access the File Location folder of the process that appears to be harmful:
In that folder, you’ll find all the files linked to the process you’ve selected. However, it may be tough to identify if they’re hazardous or not based just on their appearance. That’s why you should run an antivirus scan on them to check if these files are dangerous. If you don’t have a reputable virus scanner on hand, you can use the free online virus scanner below:
If any malicious files are found during the scan, right-click on the process and select End Process to stop it from running. You should also remove the harmful files from the File Locations folder.
The next step we advise you to do is to look for any dangerous alterations in the Hosts file of your system. To access that file, you need to launch a Run window, (hit the Windows key + R to open it) then paste the following line into the Run text field and press Enter:
notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts
Search for any suspicious-looking IP addresses in the text where “Localhost” is written and, if you come across anything suspicious, such as the virus creator IPs shown below, please copy it and post it in a comment below. We will take a closer look and let you know if there’s anything disturbing.
After you close the Hosts file, type msconfig in the Windows Search bar, then hit enter. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see a window like this:
Choose Startup from the top and look for items that don’t belong to genuine programs that regularly start up when your computer starts. As a precautionary measure, look out for entries with unusual names or “unknown” manufacturers and research them online before deciding whether to disable them.
Uncheck the checkboxes next to any items you don’t want to start with your system when it boots up and click OK to save your choices.
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One of the main reasons why it is usually difficult to remove ransomware Tzw is because of the malicious registry entries such a threat tends to add to the Registry. That’s why, in this step, we will explain to you how to check your system’s Registry for dangerous entries and get rid of them.
Warning! System corruption may occur if legitimate files and apps are removed from the Registry. Make sure you use professional removal software that can search your system for threats and remove any hazardous files that are hiding there.
Type Regedit in the search field of the Start menu and press Enter, then open a Find window (CTRL and F) with the name of the malware you are looking for. Use the Find Next button to begin searching for files that are matching that name. Any results that are detected should be deleted from the Registry in order to deal with Tzw.
However, if you are not sure whether the entries that are found are the harmful entries that need to be removed, we highly recommend you to use the powerful malware removal tool listed on this page instead of risking to corrupt your OS with manual removal.
After you’ve cleaned up your Registry, open each of the following five locations one by one:
- %AppData%
- %LocalAppData%
- %ProgramData%
- %WinDir%
- %Temp%
Tzw-related files should be removed from these locations if any new ones have been added there. Lastly, you must select and delete all files stored in Temp in order to complete the step.
How to Decrypt Tzw files
The problem with ransomware infections like Tzw is that their file encryption will not automatically be removed after the malware has been removed from the system. This is precisely what is making these threats extremely dangerous. This implies that even when the infection is removed, the victims will need to find a separate way to recover their encrypted data. If you’re interested in learning about the most up-to-date options and the best ways to minimize the bad effects of Tzw’s attack, you may find a free file recovery guide here.
Keep in mind, though, that you should not try to restore your files if the ransomware is still active or if you have any reason to believe it is still hiding somewhere on your system. To make sure the infection has been entirely eliminated from the system before trying to restore your file, we recommend you to use our free online virus scanner or the sophisticated anti-virus tool listed on this page in a combination with the manual instructions from the guide above.
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