Cerber 4.1.5 Ransomware Removal and File Recovery

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This page aims to help you remove Cerber 4.1.5 Ransomware. These Cerber 4.1.5 Ransomware removal instructions work for all versions of Windows.

You’re probably on this page, because you’ve recently encountered a very disturbing message on your computer’s desktop. The message most likely said something about some of you files being locked and it probably also announced that you could unlock them by paying a certain amount. To make matters worse, a deadline was probably included, too. We understand you must be very distressed, if this matches what happened to you, but let us assure you that there’s no reason for panic. First of all, keep in mind that these are cyber-criminals at work, so do take a minute to thread through the following lines to understand exactly how this nasty virus that is Cerber 4.1.5 has come to invade your system and tamper with the data in it. Below you will find a guide, which will help you remove the ransomware in a few simple steps.

What is Cerber 4.1.5?

As a type of ransomware, Cerber 4.1.5 is a program, which was designed with the malicious intent of infiltrating a user’s computer and encrypting the most-used files on it. After this, it proceeds to remand a ransom from the victim in return for the decryption key, which is necessary to be able to access those files again. Unfortunately, this is one of the most widespread cyber threats out there and the reason for this is the incredible profit the hackers make from it. Some of the most well-known pieces of ransomware ever to be invented were estimated to have gained millions of dollars, extorting that money from innocent users like yourself. It is for this very reason that we generally don’t recommend giving in to the scare tactics of the cybercriminals and paying the demanded amount. For one, that would directly stimulate them to keep going. And what happens if after several days, weeks or months this very same ransomware comes back with another ransom note on your screen? Who would be to blame?

The choice is entirely yours and we cannot make the decision of paying or not paying for you. But if moral reasons aren’t really enough for you, here’s another thing to consider. In many of the cases, where users have succumbed to the blackmailing, they never received any decryption key. That being said, there’s no actual reason for you to trust these guys to send you anything either. Other times, it turned out that the decryption key that was sent didn’t succeed in unlocking the files. You have to understand that this is programming we’re talking about and more often than not, there can be flaws. Either way, the people ended up wasting their money and were still left with a bunch of unreadable files instead of their important pictures, documents, music or other data.

How you could have gotten infected

There are several ways that viruses like Cerber 4.1.5 get distributed and among the most effective ones are malvertisements. These are ads (banners, popups, etc.) that don’t actually represent an existing product or service, instead they only mimic that. Be it intentionally or by mistake, when you click on one of these adverts, you end up downloading the malicious program onto your PC and then all hell breaks loose. With this in mind, we cannot stress enough how important it is to be vigilant, while surfing the web. You must never lower your guard and you should certainly avoid interacting with any of the multitude of ads you see online. It’s better to look something up that you saw on a given pop-up or banner, than just blindly go ahead and click on it.

Another very commonly used method is through spam emails, often with attached files inside. These emails can often be masked as legitimate messages from existing companies, online stores, etc., which only goes to show how determined and sophisticated cybercriminals can be. However, the emails don’t contain the ransomware itself, but rather a Trojan horse, which when opened proceeds to automatically download the evil software (Cerber 4.1.5 or similar). Additionally, you may have gotten infected through contaminated torrent files, various freeware that’s distributed on shady, suspicious-looking websites. So, once you’ve applied the below steps to remove this virus from your computer, it’s important that you pay special attention to the places you visit online and even more so to the content you download.

Cerber 4.1.5 Ransomware Removal

 Here is what you need to do in order to remove a Ransomware virus from you computer.

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I – Reveal Hidden files and folders and utilize the task manager

1. Use the Folder Options in order to reveal the hidden files and folders on your PC. If you do not know how to do that, follow this link.
2. Open the Start Menu and in the search field type Task Manager.
   
3. Open the first result and in the Processes tab, carefully look through the list of Processes.
4. If you notice with the virus name or any other suspicious-looking or that seems to consume large amounts of memory, right-click on it and open its file location. Delete everything in there.
   

• Make sure that the hidden files and folders on your PC are visible, else you might not be able to see everything.

5. Go back to the Task Manager and end the shady process.

II – Boot to Safe Mode

• Boot your PC into Safe Mode. If you do not know how to do it, use this guide/linked/.

III – Identify the threat

1. Go to the ID Ransomware website. Here is a direct link.
2. Follow there in order to identify the specific virus you are dealing with.

IV – Decrypt your files

1. Once you have identified the virus that has encrypted your files, you must acquire the respective tool to unlock your data.
2. Open your browser and search for how to decrypt ransomware, look for the name of the one that has infected your system.
3. With any luck, you’d be able to find a decryptor tool for your ransomware. If that doesn’t happen try Step V as a last ditch effort to save your files.

V – Use Recuva to restore files deleted by the virus

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1. Download the Recuva tool. This will help you restore your original files so that you won’t need to actually decrypt the locked ones.
2. Once you’ve downloaded the program, open it and select Next.
   
3. Now choose the type of files you are seeking to restore and continue to the next page.
4. When asked where your files were, before they got deleted, either use the option In a specific location and provide that location or choose the opt for the I am not sure alternative – this will make the program look everywhere on your PC.
   
5. Click on Next and for best results, enable the Deep Scan option (note that this might take some time).
   
6. Wait for the search to finish and then select which of the listed files you want to restore.

• Keep in mind it is possible that not all files might be fully recovered. You can check in what condition the files are from the State column in the list of deleted files.