Recover MDF Files After a Ransomware Attack

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Introduction

Ransomware is a unique type of malware that does not attack data integrity, but it attacks the whole computer’s security and locks it. If you knew about the Wannacry cyber-attack in 2017, you would know that millions of computers from various businesses were targeted. The ransomware asks you for some money through cryptocurrency because it protects the identities of sender and receiver. The hackers target the Faultline of a network and place the ransomware there.

Ransomware is a malware that locks your crucial computer data and demands a ransom amount when you try to access it. One example is WannaCry, the ransomware that affected millions of computers worldwide in 2017.

Technical aspects of ransomware

Windows machines use Server Message Block Protocol for communicating over a network. When hackers install ransomware over the network, it exploits the vulnerability of SBM (some examples are DoublePulsar and EternalBlue) for to spread to other devices.

Types of ransomware

The ransomware is broadly categorized into several types:

• Encrypting Ransomware: This type encrypts all the files with a passcode and demands a ransom to decrypt the files.
• Locker Ransomware: It locks your system and displays a ransom amount on the screen.
• MBR Ransomware: This type turns the OS to an unbootable state.
• IoT Ransomware: In this, the attackers take over the device completely.
• Android Mobile Device Ransomware: The mobile devices either gets permanently locked or your sensitive data is stolen by the attackers.

Recovery from Ransomware

If you face ransomware attacks, we have some suggestions that might help you.

Solution 1: Use Task Manager

This manual method is suggested to remove the Wallet ransomware attack. Follow the steps to recover the files:

1. Open Task Manager (shortcut keys: CTRL+Shift+ESC)
2. Look for randomly generated files under Processes
3. Right-click on file and click End Process.
   Note: Proceed to the next step for detecting the hidden files.
   • To display hidden files and folders in Windows 10, click in the Search on the taskbar, type Folder. Select Show Hidden Files and Folders and drives (Under Advanced Settings); click OK.
   • To display hidden files and folders in Windows type Folder Options in the Search box; open the Folder Options, go to Advanced Settings; select Show hidden files, folders, drives and then click OK.
   • To display hidden files and folders in Windows 7, go to Control Panel >> Appearance and Personalization; click Folder Options, select the view tab; click Advanced Settings, select Show Hidden files, folders and drives and click Master Boot Records.

Solution 2: Recovery of Encrypted files

System restore is the best solution to deal with encryption type ransomware. The user can open System Restore from Control Panel to restore to a previous state.

Solution 3: A specialized solution to recover MDF files

MDF files of SQL Server can also be affected by ransomware attacks. Kernel for SQL Database Recovery tool is the best tool for recovering corrupt or inaccessible MDF database files. It is an excellent utility that is intelligently designed to restore your lost database objects without any loss of data integrity.

To recover or repair your corrupt and inaccessible MDF files, follow the below-mentioned steps:

1. Install and Launch the software and select the .mdf database file. Then choose the SQL database version of the MDF file. Click the Recover button.
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2. The recovered objects will be displayed as shown below. After cross checking your objects and files, select the data you want to save and click the Save button.
3. Now, select the required saving mode and click OK.
   
4. After the completion of the saving process, click OK.
   

Final Words:

After ransomware attacks, you will be asked to pay a hefty amount to get access to your locked files. However, you can try to recover lost MDF files using Windows recovery tools or using SQL recovery tools.

Final Words

Suppose you do not want to face such situation where a ransomware stops the computer from operating. In that case, you can recover the MDF files by using this software. It will even recover the completely lost data from the database tables. Later, you can save the content on a new computer.