Zip Ransomware Removal Guide

Do you know what Zip Ransomware is?

Zip Ransomware is a nasty malicious application we are sure you would not want to encounter because it is one of those threats that seek to obtain money from users by making it impossible for them to access their personal files. Unlike some other ransomware infections detected and analyzed by our malware researchers some time ago, it does not encrypt any files it finds stored on compromised computers. Instead, it puts them all in password-protected zip archives thus making it impossible to access them. You should also find a ransom if it ever infiltrates your computer. Surprisingly, it does not tell users anything about the ransom, but we are still sure that your money is the only thing cyber criminals behind this ransomware infection want. Most likely, you will be told to make a payment when you send your unique “code” to the provided email address. If you are sure you are not going to send money to malicious software developers, you should not even bother writing an email to them. No matter what you decide to do, the ransomware infection must be removed from the system as soon as possible because it might start working again at any time and encrypt files one more time. Its removal should not be very troublesome because it does not drop any additional files on victims’ computers and does not make any important modifications in the system registry, as our malware researchers have observed.

We are sure Zip Ransomware also wants money from users, but, unlike a bunch of harmful crypto-threats, it does not encrypt users’ files. Unfortunately, it does not mean that users could freely access them after its successful entrance because it puts the most valuable files into .zip archives. The 8-character passcode is required to unlock those archives, so it might be impossible to crack it and access files for free. The .txt file (Unzip your ZIP files.txt) dropped by the ransomware infection does not provide much information about the decryption of files. Users are only told that they need a security key to recover them. Also, the email address (zip@email.tg) is left for them, which suggests that cyber criminals want users to contact them. If you write an email to them, we believe that you will be provided with payment instructions and find out how much you have to pay for the passcode. No matter it turns out to be cheap or expensive, you should not transfer money to crooks because you do not know whether they will give you the passcode for unlocking these .zip archives with your personal files. Unfortunately, there might be no other ways to get files back.

There are not many users who have found Zip Ransomware on their computers, i.e. the infection rate of this ransomware infection is low. As a consequence, it is not easy for us to talk about its distribution. Although not much is known about methods used to spread this threat, our specialists are sure that this malicious application slithers onto users’ computers illegally. According to them, it should be distributed using the usual ways, e.g. spam emails in most cases, but we cannot promise that it cannot find another way to slither onto users’ computers unnoticed. Ransomware infections are one of the most harmful threats developed commonly by cyber criminals these days. They become more and more sophisticated, so it is not always easy to prevent them from entering computers. Because of this, we suggest that you have a security application enabled on your computer. You should stop downloading programs from dubious pages too because you might download crypto-malware from corrupted pages.

You will not get a passcode to unlock your archived files if you remove Zip Ransomware from your computer, but you definitely cannot keep this infection on your system because its presence might bring you even more problems. For example, it might lock your new files again. Additionally, other threats might be able to infiltrate your computer easier. Follow our manual removal guide (it is located below this article) to remove the ransomware infection fully from your computer.

How to delete Zip Ransomware

  1. Open Explorer (press Win+E).
  2. Check %USERPROFILE%\Downloads and %USERPROFILE%\Desktop (these are directories where users' downloaded files are usually located).
  3. Delete all recently downloaded suspicious files.
  4. Remove Unzip your ZIP files.txt from your computer if you can locate it.
  5. Empty Trash.

In non-techie terms:

Zip Ransomware is one of those infections that have been developed by cyber criminals for money extortion. Once it infiltrates users’ computers, it does not encrypt files like other crypto-threats, but, instead, puts files into .zip archives. It does not demand a ransom at first, but we are sure you will be told to pay the certain amount of money if you contact cyber criminals by the provided email address. Do not even think about sending money to malicious software developers. Instead, delete the ransomware infection from your computer fully as soon as possible.