Has anyone had their album artwork encrypted by a virus?

[[email protected]]

Has anyone had their album artwork encrypted by a virus? I had a file on my C drive that had 282 jpeg files of my album artwork. A virus has now made them useless by turning them into HRM files whatever that is. I haven't seen any offer to decrypt them but there is an email address attached to each entry: Billy Joel Greatest hits 1&2.jpg[[email protected]].HRM

I don't find anything else that's been locked up by this change. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced thews? I don't intend to contact them as it would surely lead to more destruction. Any help would be appreciated. I have Malware bytes in place but didn't seem to have stopped this from happening.

[sveakul]

The best response to this would be restore your drive from the backup image you made recently.  So in the future, you really should add making regular drive image backups to your operations.

You should also always keep at LEAST one backup of all your data files--images, music, everything--on a location separated from your daily working machine.

I know you're looking for a solution not a lecture.  You can Google HRM and find info like this:

https://sensorstechforum.com/hrm-files-virus-hermes-2-1-remove-restore-files/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/682241/hermes-21-ransomware/
https://www.pcrisk.com/removal-guides/13175-hermes-21-ransomware

 I have no personal experiece with nor can I recommend any tools/solutions discussed in these links, but presented FYI.  It sounds like it may be just a matter of time before the ransomware spreads elswhere on your PC, unfortunately.