What is Proton ransomware?
Proton ransomware, sometimes also known as Kigatsu ransomware, is a computer virus that encrypts all files on your computer. This behavior is characteristic to ransomware. This type of viruses holds your files ransom, that is to say, demand payment to decrypt them.
Proton renames the files after encrypting them. It appends the hacker’s e-mail, the victim’s unique ID, and .kigatsu file extension to the end of each name. For example, a file named “income.xlsx” could be renamed to “income.xlsx.[Kigatsu@tutanota.com][3A67DF03].kigatsu”. This is why this virus is also known as Kigatsu ransomware.
The virus also leaves a ransom note, “README.txt”, which contains instructions for the victim. You may read it on the image above, however, you will not find anything particularly noteworthy there. Unfortunately, the hackers chose not to reveal how much money they want for decryption; they simply tell the victim to contact them.
Generally speaking, it is not recommended to pay these criminals, and even contacting them could be risky. Quite often, the hackers simply disappear after receiving payment, without decrypting anything at all. Alternatively, they might return the files, but attack you again sometime later.
This is why we encourage you to learn about other ways to remove Proton ransomware and decrypt .kigatsu files. The guide below is a good place to start.