Home Malware Programs Ransomware ‘.exx File Extension’ Ransomware

‘.exx File Extension’ Ransomware

Posted: January 21, 2016

Threat Metric

Threat Level: 8/10
Infected PCs: 90
First Seen: January 21, 2016
Last Seen: March 26, 2020
OS(es) Affected: Windows

The '.exx File Extension' Ransomware is a file encryptor that scans your hard drive, blocks files of particular types by modifying their internal data, and delivers a ransom message for buying a service to undo these attacks. However, the naturally inconstant nature of decryption ransoms causes malware experts to recommend using almost any other solution to an '.exx File Extension' Ransomware attack. For most PCs, removing the '.exx File Extension' Ransomware with anti-malware products and restoring files from a remote backup should be sufficient for resolving the issue.

How Data Protection may Get Hijacked by Trojans

Although file encryption is a straightforward and easy security routine for protecting your data, con artists also may exploit it for the opposite purpose. The '.exx File Extension' Ransomware is part of a growing sub-group of Trojans based off of the TeslaCrypt, dedicated to using file encryption for selling your information back to you. Because of this threat's associations with attacking gaming software, the '.exx File Extension' Ransomware is especially likely of distributing itself at illicit download resources and is installed automatically.

Once it has access to your PC, the '.exx File Extension' Ransomware scans any accessible drives for files of specific formats. In addition to gaming products, the '.exx File Extension' Ransomware also may target spreadsheets, audio files, images, or documents, for example. The '.exx File Extension' Ransomware avoids targeting essential components of your operating system, but the Trojan sends files through an encryption process that makes other programs unable to open them.

Afterwards, the '.exx File Extension' Ransomware may place text files on your hard drive, modify your desktop or load a pop-up window, any of which may deliver its ransom demands. Most victims are instructed to pay a sum through Bitcoin in return for being allowed to decrypt their files.

All that's the Same with a New Ransom's Name

The '.exx File Extension' Ransomware is a likely branch from previous threats designed with the same purpose, albeit with cosmetic changes to the extension the '.exx File Extension' Ransomware adds to its encrypted files. However, even minor threat variants, including the '.exx File Extension' Ransomware, the '.zzz File Extension' Ransomware, the '.ezz File Extension' Ransomware, or the '.xyz File Extension' Ransomware can necessitate developing new decryption solutions. These issues combined with the usual problems of paying con artists to recover your files force malware experts to urge all PC users to keep safe file backup locations as the simplest way of avoiding file encryptor-related problems. Note that local backups, such as Windows restore points, are likely of being deleted by the '.exx File Extension' Ransomware.

Disinfecting your computer always should take priority over resolving the overall damage from its payload. Because of its nature as a dedicated threat that conceals its files with randomized names, deleting the '.exx File Extension' Ransomware always should use anti-malware products that can scan your computer and detect it automatically.

The '.exx File Extension' Ransomware is most likely targeting Windows users alone, like most revisions of the TeslaCrypt Ransomware.

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