Crypton Ransomware Removal Guide

Crypton Ransomware could do major damage to you by encrypting your most important files after sneaking onto your computer without your knowledge. The only case when the presence of this dangerous threat may not actually become a nightmare is if you have a backup copy of your files regularly saved onto a removable hard disk of some sort. Although you are offered help by the cyber criminals who attacked you, it is obviously not for free. If you decide to pay the ransom fee, you could be scammed and lose hundreds of dollars in one quick go. We very rarely advise our readers to pay such fees because on one hand, it is tantamount to supporting criminals to commit further crimes; on the other hand, these crooks may care about your problem enough to send you the decryption key or tool. All in all, we believe that the best way to restore your virtual safety is to remove Crypton Ransomware right away.

We found during our research and testing that this ransomware follows suit and spreads mainly through spam e-mails as a malicious attachment. Obviously, this attached file is disguised not to be recognized to blow its cover. This file can look like a normal image, video, or text document. However, it is indeed the executable file that silently downloads and activates Crypton Ransomware in the background. While you may think that you are about to see an important picture or document of an unsettled invoice, a problematic flight booking, an unpaid speeding ticket, or any other eye-catching trap, this ransomware program may just finish its encryption. This is why this threat is so dangerous. Because by the time you can delete Crypton Ransomware, it will have finished all its dirty job. This is the reason why it is so important to prevent such a dangerous program from entering your computer in the first place.

It is quite easy to get fooled by this spam e-mail because its sender may seem totally fine and authentic, not to mention its subject line that could be very convincing indeed. Could you say no to an e-mail that says “RE: unpaid invoice Nr. #212315” or “RE: your unsettled speeding ticket of 03.04.2016” even if you find it in your spam folder? Such mails should be handled with great care because once you open them, there is only one more step to save the attachment. The last straw is obviously running the file itself. If you do not want to remove Crypton Ransomware or any other ransomware infection that slithers onto your system this way, you should be more cautious about which mails you trust.

Once you activate this attack, this infection drops the malicious executable in your %APPDATA% directory with the name of "crypton.exe." This ransomware also creates a PoE (Point of Execution) in your Windows Registry ("HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Crypton" with the value data pointing to the file in %APPDATA%) to make sure that it starts up automatically with Windows every time you reboot your system. Apart from this Run registry key, it also creates one called "HKCU\Software\Crypton." When you are ready to act, these have to be deleted in order to remove Crypton Ransomware from you system.

This ransomware uses the AES algorithm to encrypt your files with the following extensions: .7z, .cd, .cdr, .dat, .db, .dbf, .dbx, .doc, .docx, .htm, .html, .jpg, .mdb, .mht, .pdf, .png, .ppt, .pptx, .psd, .pst, .rar, .rtf, .tbb, .tbn, .tiff, .txt, .vsd, .xls, .xlsx, .xml, and.zip. The affected files get a ".crypt" extension. When the encryption is over, which could take as little as one single minute, the ransom note window comes up on your screen unmistakably. This note is available in two languages: Russian and English. According to this message, you are supposed to send an undisclosed amount of Bitcoins to an address that does not seem to be given in this window. The reason behind this could be that the connection between our sample and the Command and Control server was lost. This can happen when cyber criminals shut down a server. However, if this takes place after you transfer the ransom fee, you lose the possibility to get your decryption key since it is kept hidden on one of these servers. This is one of the reasons why it is actually so risky to pay at all. The fee can usually range from $10 up to $1000 or even more depending on the appetite of the cyber criminals. If you want to save your computer, we recommend that you remove Crypton Ransomware immediately.

Fortunately, it is not a big deal to delete this dangerous infection from your system. If you follow our guide below, you should be done in a few minutes really. If you are lucky enough to have a backup copy, you also need to remove Crypton Ransomware first and only then transfer your clean files back to your hard disk. As you can see now it is very easy to get infected with even such a serious threat. If you do not want to go through this experience again, we suggest that you install a trustworthy anti-malware program, such as SpyHunter that will automatically defend your system from any known malicious attacks.

How to remove Crypton Ransomware from Windows

1. Press Win+E.
2. Locate and bin the downloaded file.
3. Delete "crypton.exe" from %APPDATA% folder.
4. Empty your Recycle Bin.
5. Press Win+Q and type regedit. Press Enter.
6. Locate and delete these registry value names:
   HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Crypton
   HKCU\Software\Crypton
7. Exit your editor.
8. Restart your system.