Katafrack Ransomware Removal Guide

Katafrack Ransomware seems to be yet another infection built on the well-known Hidden Tear Ransomware; however, we have also found signs that it may be a revamped version of Ordinal Ransomware. This new threat certainly has some potentials to become a dangerous hit but right now it seems that it fails to encrypt your files. Obviously, this failure is your silver lining in this malicious attack. But just because you may get away without your files being encoded, it does not mean that this is an innocent program you can keep on board. As a matter of fact, we strongly recommend that you remove Katafrack Ransomware from your PC immediately after you notice its presence. Prevention is vital when it comes to ransomware hits. Please read on to find out more about how you can actually avoid similar attacks.

This malware infection may be spread in two ways. The most likely way is that you download and activate it yourself via spam e-mails. Do not beat yourself up too hard about this though because it can really happen to anyone since this spam could be rather convincing and important-looking. If your computer is not protected with an up-to-date anti-malware program, you can easily let such a beast wannabe onto your machine without even realizing it. This spam may seem to come from authentic senders like the local police, a government office, your Internet provider, a well-known hotel or airline, and so on. The subject could be an unpaid invoice, wrong banking details provided, and the like. These cyber criminals know exactly what makes most humans tick: Curiosity. That is why it is quite likely that most people would open this mail even if it lands in the spam folder. Please note that normally you could not delete Katafrack Ransomware without losing your files to encryption. It is out of sheer luck that this version may not encrypt files, but this can change with a new version.

Another way for you to get infected is via RDP attacks. This means that there has to be a remote desktop application installed on your computer, which is not properly configured. For instance, your password is quite weak and can be easily hacked by these attackers. Once they gain access to your system, it will not take much longer to install this ransomware and activate it behind your back. This is a dangerous way to be infected because you can really do nothing about it; well, other than use strong passwords, apply proper configuration, or protect your computer with a powerful up-to-date malware removal tool unless you want to remove Katafrack Ransomware manually.

This ransomware program is supposed to use the AES-256 encryption algorithm to take all your personal files hostage in the hope of extorting money from you for the decryption software and key. However, as we have already mentioned, this current version does not seem to encrypt any files on your system. Once it is done with the alleged encryption, this malware infection displays its ransom note application window that may cover the whole screen. It also drops a text file called "READ-ME-TO-GET-YOUR-FILES-BACK.txt" on your desktop, which has more or less that same instructions.

You have to send 0.02 BTC (around 230 USD at the moment) in Bitcoin or Ethereum to the given address and then, write and e-mail to "OrdinalScale@protonmail.com." Since there may have not been any encryption at all on your system, we do not advise you to go on with the transfer. As a matter of fact, we would never suggest that you pay because cyber criminals are not really famous for keeping their word. We recommend that you remove Katafrack Ransomware right away.

First of all, you need to kill the malicious process, which you can do by opening your Task Manager. Once done with that, you can delete all the related files. Please follow our instructions below if you would like to eliminate this threat manually. Do not forget that there may be other malicious and potential threats as well on your computer. If you do not want or cannot detect them manually, you can always use a trustworthy malware removal application like SpyHunter.

How to remove Katafrack Ransomware from Windows

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager.
2. Identify the malicious process.
3. Right-click over the process and choose Properties.
4. Check the Location field to be able to delete the malicious executable.
5. Click OK.
6. Press End task to kill the process.
7. Exit the Task Manager.
8. Press Win+E to launch the File Explorer.
9. Check your download directories for recently downloaded suspicious programs and delete them all.
10. Delete the ransom note ("READ-ME-TO-GET-YOUR-FILES-BACK.txt") from the desktop.
11. Empty your Recycle Bin.
12. Reboot your PC.