What is Hydrox virus?
Hydrox appends its specific .hydrox extension to every fileâs name. For example, a file entitled âphoto.jpgâ will be altered to âphoto.jpg.hydroxâ. In the same manner, the Excel file named âtable.xlsxâ will be renamed to âtable.xlsx.hydroxâ, and so on.
In each directory containing the encoded files, a Hydrox Ransomware.txt text file will appear. It is a ransom money note. It contains information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. That is pretty much the scheme of the malefaction.
| Name | Hydrox Virus |
| Extension | .hydrox |
| Ransomware note | Hydrox Ransomware.txt |
| Detection1 | Win32/TrojanDownloader.Small.OCD, TrojanDropper:Win32/Vundo.AB, Trojan:MSIL/Tiny.AC!MTB |
| Symptoms | Your files (photos, videos, documents) get a .hydrox extension and you canât open them. |
| Fix Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by Hydrox virus |
In the picture below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Hydrox looks like. Each filename has the â.hydroxâ extension appended to it.
How did Hydrox ransomware end up on my PC?
Nowadays, there are three most popular methods for malefactors to have ransomware settled in your system. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer file transfer.
If you access your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose âfromâ field is unknown to you, beware of opening those emails. They are most likely to have a viral file attached to them. Thus it is even riskier to download any attachments that come with emails like these.
Another option for ransom hunters is a Trojan virus model2. A Trojan is a program that gets into your machine disguised as something different. For example, you download an installer of some program you need or an update for some software. But what is unboxed reveals itself a harmful program that compromises your data. As the update wizard can have any name and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the resource of the files youâre downloading. The best way is to trust the software companiesâ official websites.
As for the peer networks like BitTorrent or eMule, the threat is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Internet. You can never know what you download until you get it. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy websites. Also, it is reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is complete.
