Do you know what NSMF Ransomware is?
NSMF Ransomware is one of the newest crypto-threats our experienced malware analysts have detected. At present, its encryption service does not work. Most probably, because its main server is down or it is still in development, so if you encounter this infection soon after the publication of this article, you should find your personal files intact as well. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that malicious software developers will not update this infection one day in the future. If it ever happens, you will probably notice that files cannot be opened by double-clicking on them. In addition, their appearance will slightly change – you will find them having a new filename extension .nsmf. Cyber criminals develop ransomware infections not to lock users’ files for fun. What they want from them is money, so do not be surprised if you find a ransom note on your Desktop after encountering NSMF Ransomware. Let us remind you that the ransom note created on your Desktop does not necessarily indicate that your files have been locked, so it might be enough to delete the ransomware infection from the system only.
The version of NSMF Ransomware analyzed by our experienced specialists does not encrypt any files at the time of writing; however, the chances are high that you will encounter a fully working version in the future. If it ever happens, you will discover your files locked and having a new filename extension. Second, you will find a new file readme.txt, which is a ransom note, created on Desktop. Actually, you will find it there no matter your files have been locked or not. This file is a ransom note explaining what can be done to get files back. It tells users that they need to send 5 Bitcoins or a pizza to cyber criminals:
Send me 5 bitcoins or pizza
And I also hate night clubs, desserts, being drunk.
5 Bitcoins is a huge amount of money. At today’s price, 5 Bitcoins are equal to 12 784 USD, so we would call you insane deservedly if you decide to send cyber criminals a ransom. We are almost sure that your files are fine and you do not need to purchase the decryption key; however, if this threat is ever updated and you find your files locked and having a new .nsmf extension, you should try to get them back for free instead of paying a huge ransom. This would only be possible if you back up your files periodically and keep this backup on a USB flash drive or another external device. If we were you, we would also try out all free file recovery tools instead of paying more than 12 000 dollars to cyber criminals for the decryption key. Unfortunately, we cannot promise that you could unlock your files using alternative data recovery methods. Frankly speaking, you have no guarantees that cyber criminals will unlock files for you either after receiving your money.
Our experienced specialists working in the cyber security field recommend users taking steps to protect their machines from ransomware infections – they are being actively developed by cyber criminals these days. It is highly recommended to install a reputable security application on the system and keep it active all the time because different strategies might be adopted to disseminate ransomware infections. Because of this, it is not hard for them to show up on users’ PCs. For example, it is known that they might arrive on computers via unsafe RDP connections, spam email attachments, and suspicious downloads. The same can be said about NSMF Ransomware – these are the methods used to distribute it as well. An enabled automatic tool on your computer will help you not to encounter a file-encrypting threat ever again.
NSMF Ransomware is not one of those sophisticated ransomware infections which lock the screen or create a point of execution in order to launch automatically together with the Windows OS. Therefore, we are sure you will delete this infection from your PC without any problems. If you find it impossible to delete this ransomware infection manually, erase it with an automatic malware remover. The removal method used is not as important as the final result.
Delete NSMF Ransomware
- Open Task Manager (tap Ctrl+Shift+Esc simultaneously).
- Open the Processes tab.
- Kill the malicious process (right-click on it and select End Process/End task) and then remove the malicious file associated with it (you can find it by right-clicking on the malicious process and selecting Open file location).
- Check %USERPROFILE%\Downloads, %USERPROFILE%\Desktop, and %TEMP% for suspicious files.
- Delete them all one by one.
- Empty the Trash bin.
In non-techie terms:
We do not say that it is necessarily the truth, but other untrustworthy applications might be actively working on your computer as well. You can try to search for them yourself, but knowing that malware might hide deep on the system and silently perform activities in the background, it might be impossible to locate it. It does not mean that an easier way to find out more about the system’s condition does not exist – just go to scan your PC with an automated antimalware scanner.