Serpent Ransomware Removal (+File Recovery)

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Welcome to our Serpent Ransomware removal guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC for free.

Ransomware is a particularly dangerous and problematic type of malware that has the ability to restrict the user’s access to their own data. Recently, a new addition to the family of Ransomware viruses has been released and many users have already fallen victim to it. The name of the new threat is Serpent Ransomware and it uses encryption to lock the user’s data. After the files have been locked, the user needs to pay a ransom to the hacker in order to get the key for the encryption that was used to lock the data. Here, you will learn how it functions and what you can do in order to potentially prevent it from locking your files.

What to do if Serpent Ransomware has already encrypted your data?

For those of our readers who have already had their PC’s attacked by the malicious malware and their data encrypted, we have prepared a guide that includes a number of Ransomware removal methods as well as instructions on how one might unlock the files without paying anything to the cyber-criminal that has attacked their PC. Unfortunately, we cannot give any guarantee that the guide will be successful in all situations. There’s just no universal method of handling a Ransomware infection and what has worked in for one user might not be effective for somebody else’s computer. However, there is no doubt that using our guide as a way to resolve your issue a much more sensible course of action in contrast to actually going for the ransom. This is also our first advice for you – do not agree to the demands of the hacker. For what you know, you might be simply wasting your money without even getting the key for your files.

Detecting Ransomware is not an easy task

A major issue that most users face when Ransomware attacks their PC is the fact that they are usually not able to detect it. Not only are there almost no visible symptoms of the infection but also most antivirus programs are known to fail when it comes to detecting Ransomware. Remember how we mentioned that Serpent uses encryption to lock the data on your machine? Well, this is one of the main reasons why your security program is probably not able to detect a Ransomware such as this one. Encryption, on its own, is not actually a harmful process. In fact, it is a common data protection method and for that reason is very widely used by legit programs and developers. Hackers who use Ransomware exploit that and they too use encryption for the purposes of the viruses they create. Obviously, since encryption is generally considered a legitimate process, an antivirus program without any special anti-Ransomware features will not detect it as malicious even if the encryption is coming from Serpent. That way, the virus can remain under the radar throughout the whole duration of the process. Once it is all over, Serpent will actually reveal itself by notifying the user about what has just happened via a message displayed on the computer screen. The notification oftentimes includes instructions on how exactly the payment needs to be made.

Potential symptoms

As we mentioned above, another major problem when talking about this type of malware is the fact that they oftentimes lack any actual symptoms. Still, it won’t hurt being vigilant and taking notice of your computer’s behavior. Here are several possible signs of a Ransomware attack that you should be on the lookout for:

• Unusually high CPU and RAM consumption should usually be treated as a red flag that something is not quite right with your machine. As most other forms of malware, Ransomware too are known to cause such system resource spikes.
• A decrease of your free physical memory space that seems to be caused by no apparent reason is a very typical Serpent symptom.
• If your system starts to give a lot of errors, gets slowed-down or is generally unstable, this could be a sign that it has been attacked by Ransomware.

Ways to fend off Serpent

There is no doubt that the best way to handle a Ransomware threat is to simply keep it away from your files. Here are a couple of tips to help you do that:

• Do not download stuff from websites with a shady reputation or ones that you don’t know if you can trust.
• Avoid clicking on any suspicious-looking banners, ads, pop-ups etc and also try to stay away from websites that have them throughout their pages.
• Be on your guard when checking your email inbox. Malign spam e-mails are one of the most widely used techniques for infecting computers with malicious malware.
• You machine must be equipped with a reliable security software – while this might not stop a Ransomware, it will provide significant defense against backdoor malware. Such viruses are commonly used for infecting computers with Ransomware.
• Finally, as a last defense method, always have your files backed up on a separate device/s. This is, by far, the best anti-ransomware precaution that one can take.

Serpent Ransomware Removal

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

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

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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.
   

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• 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

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.