How to remove Ziggy Ransomware and decrypt .ziggy or .optimus files

What is Ziggy Ransomware

Ziggy is a new ransomware-infection recorded in December 2020. The virus sneaks into your system disabling all protectionary layers on your PC. Then, it gets the job done by running data encryption with AES256-GCM and RSA-4096 algorithms. These ensure strong encryption, which is hard to decipher. Before going deeper into details, it is important to say that there are two versions of Ziggy Ransomware. The first uses the .ziggy extension along with victims’ ID and cybercriminals’ e-mail to configure the data. The later version of Ziggy Ransomware detected recently started involving the same string of information but changed the extension at the end to .optimus. For example, a file like 1.docx would change to 1.docx.id=[88F54427].email=[khomeyni@yahooweb.co].ziggy or 1.docx.id[B68A285D].[sikbeker@tuta.io].optimus depending on which version affected your PC. Following successful encryption, the malicious program creates a text file containing decryption instructions. The name of the files can vary from version to version, so there is no commonly-used, but initially, it was called ## HOW TO DECRYPT ##.exe.

The content included inside is more-less the same with minimal changes. As a rule, Ziggy developers ask victims to contact them via e-mail attaching personal ID. After this stage is passed, people will get the payment details to purchase the decryption keys. Unfortunately, the statistics of trustworthy swindlers are rarely good – most users get fooled and do not receive any tools to restore their data even after completing the payment. Moreover, a group of experts tested software provided by cybercriminals and it turned out it has no efficiency in data decryption at all. This is why paying for such services ends up even more pointless. Luckily, there is information that files encrypted by the older version of Ziggy Ransomware can be restored using Emsisoft decryptor. This might not guarantee full decryption, because it seems like some files get damaged during infection. Whatever version you are struggling with, try to use our tutorial for both. At first, we will delete the virus from your PC and only then attempt to decrypt your data.

Ziggy Ransomware

Optimus Ransomware

How Ziggy Ransomware infected your computer

Ziggy Ransomware is known to pounce via poor RDP configuration, however, there are many other channels that could be abused as well. The list of such includes trojans, e-mail spam, fake software cracking tools, botnets, keyloggers, and many more. Cybercriminals tend to exploit users’ inexperience to make them download or interact with malicious content. For example, some extortionists send e-mail messages with malvertising attachments classified as spam. They mark such messages as something legitimate, usually by copying templates of legitimate companies. This technique is used to make a user believe that one is seeing familiar content and correlate no suspicion with it. A range of malicious files may vary from MS Office documents, PDFs, executables, and JavaScript files. Initially, these files are legitimate formats but often reconfigured by cybercriminals to promote malware. If you dare click on any of these attachments from spam messages, chances are you will get infected with ransomware or trojans. To avert this, you should be more attentive and use supplementary software to establish AI protection against potentially dangerous content. You can find more information about it down below.

1. Download Ziggy Ransomware Removal Tool
2. Get decryption tool for .ziggy or .optimus files
3. Recover encrypted files with Stellar Data Recovery Professional
4. Restore encrypted files with Windows Previous Versions
5. Restore files with Shadow Explorer
6. How to protect from threats like Ziggy Ransomware

Ziggy Ransomware files:


## HOW TO DECRYPT ##.exe
Ziggy Info.exe
{randomfilename}.exe


Ziggy Ransomware registry keys:

no information

How to decrypt and restore .ziggy or .optimus files

Use automated decryptors

Download Emsisoft Decryptor for Ziggy

Use following tool from Emsisoft called Decryptor for Ziggy, that can decrypt .ziggy or .optimus files. Download it here:

There is no purpose to pay the ransom because there is no guarantee you will receive the key, but you will put your bank credentials at risk.

Dr.Web confirmed ability to decrypt certain versions of Ziggy Ransomware, all you need is to be an existing client or purchase one of the Dr. Web products and make a support request.

Dr.Web Rescue Pack

Famous antivirus vendor Dr. Web provides free decryption service for the owners of its products: Dr.Web Security Space or Dr.Web Enterprise Security Suite. Other users can ask for help in the decryption of .ziggy or .optimus files by uploading samples to Dr. Web Ransomware Decryption Service. Analyzing of files will be performed free of charge and if files are decryptable, all you need to do is purchase a 2-year license of Dr.Web Security Space worth $120 or less. Otherwise, you don’t have to pay.

If you are infected with Ziggy Ransomware and removed it from your computer you can try to decrypt your files. Antivirus vendors and individuals create free decryptors for some crypto-lockers. To attempt to decrypt them manually you can do the following:

Use Stellar Data Recovery Professional to restore .ziggy or .optimus files

1. Download Stellar Data Recovery Professional.
2. Click Recover Data button.
3. Select type of files you want to restore and click Next button.
4. Choose location where you would like to restore files from and click Scan button.
5. Preview found files, choose ones you will restore and click Recover.

Using Windows Previous Versions option:

1. Right-click on infected file and choose Properties.
2. Select Previous Versions tab.
3. Choose particular version of the file and click Copy.
4. To restore the selected file and replace the existing one, click on the Restore button.
5. In case there is no items in the list choose alternative method.

Using Shadow Explorer:

1. Download Shadow Explorer program.
2. Run it and you will see screen listing of all the drives and the dates that shadow copy was created.
3. Select the drive and date that you want to restore from.
4. Right-click on a folder name and select Export.
5. In case there are no other dates in the list, choose alternative method.

If you are using Dropbox:

1. Login to the DropBox website and go to the folder that contains encrypted files.
2. Right-click on the encrypted file and select Previous Versions.
3. Select the version of the file you wish to restore and click on the Restore button.

How to protect computer from viruses, like Ziggy Ransomware, in future

1. Get special anti-ransomware software

Use ZoneAlarm Anti-Ransomware

ZoneAlarm Anti-Ransomware Dashboard

ZoneAlarm Anti-Ransomware Alert

ZoneAlarm Anti-Ransomware Blocked

Famous antivirus brand ZoneAlarm by Check Point released a comprehensive tool, that will help you with active anti-ransomware protection, as an additional shield to your current protection. The tool provides Zero-Day protection against ransomware and allows you to recover files. ZoneAlarm Anti-Ransomware is compatible with all other antiviruses, firewalls, and security software except ZoneAlarm Extreme (already shipped with ZoneAlarm Anti-Ransomware) or Check Point Endpoint products. The killer features of this application are: automatic file recovery, overwrite protection that instantly and automatically recovers any encrypted files, file protection that detects and blocks even unknown encryptors.

2. Back up your files

As an additional way to save your files, we recommend online backup. Local storages, such as hard drives, SSDs, flash drives, or remote network storages can be instantly infected by the virus once plugged in or connected to. Ziggy Ransomware uses some techniques to exploit this. One of the best services and programs for easy automatic online backup is iDrive. It has the most profitable terms and a simple interface. You can read more about iDrive cloud backup and storage here.

3. Do not open spam e-mails and protect your mailbox

Malicious attachments to spam or phishing e-mails are the most popular method of ransomware distribution. Using spam filters and creating anti-spam rules is good practice. One of the world leaders in anti-spam protection is MailWasher Pro. It works with various desktop applications and provides a very high level of anti-spam protection.