Hand of God Ransomware is a malicious ransomware infection that locks your screen and demands that you pay 555.29 CAD for a “release.” Although we are used to encrypting ransomware programs these days, this infection takes a page from a very old book, when screen-locking ransomware was very popular. Instead of encrypting your files, it denies desktop access and says that you have committed a crime for which you have to pay. Of course, you should not pay anything. You need to remove Hand of God Ransomware from your system immediately, and we will show you how to do it.
If you do not follow security news, you probably have not heard of the Ukash Ransomware family before. A few years ago, it was a huge group of ransomware infections that would lock up user’s screen and then demand a ransom payment for a supposed crime. Most of those payments were supposed to be made through the Ukash payment system, and that is how it got its name. Hand of God Ransomware, on the other hand, requires that you paid in Bitcoins, so while its payload is similar to the old type ransomware, it borrows the ransom transfer method from the new encrypting ransomware programs.
Unfortunately, it is hard to say how Hand of God Ransomware gets into the target system. We know that there are quite a few distribution methods this infection can employ. For instance, it could easily make use of spam email attachments. It could also be embedded in some pop-up ad in a random website. You may also encounter it accidentally in a pop-up that appears on your screen when you click something during one of your web browsing sessions. In short, in order to avoid getting infected with Hand of God Ransomware, one has to be extremely careful. Safe web browsing habits are important.
When Hand of God Ransomware finally enters the target system, the program launches itself in full screen and blocks the user from using their computer. It is not possible to close the ransom note via Task Manager because the program blocks it, too. The ransom note displays a fake FBI logo with a message in French. It says that users have committed an illegal act of luring innocent people and promising them a job in Canada. It might be rather random, but it is clear that Hand of God Ransomware wants to scare users into paying the money. It even says that the program will self-destruct within 2 hours, taking all of your files along with it.
Disregarding whether that threat is true or not, you should not lose your cool. There is a way to remove Hand of God Ransomware from your system, and you do not need to spend hundreds of dollars on that. The best way to get rid of this infection is to acquire a powerful security application. To do that, you need to access the Internet. Below you will find instructions how to bypass the screen-lock and download a security application on your computer.
If by any chance, you would like to remove the malicious files manually, you need to look for the most recently downloaded files and delete them. Also, you will need to remove the malicious AngelFile.exe file from the Startup directory via %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. For more information, please do not hesitate to leave us a comment.
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