What is Pouu ransomware?
Pouu is a virus designed to encrypt the data of its victims. This is done so that it can demand ransom for the files’ decryption; this type of viruses is known as ransomware. Pouu belongs to the STOP/Djvu virus family, meaning that it’s similar to other such viruses as they share parts of their code.
Generally speaking, ransomware programs rename encrypted files to make their attacks more effective, and create a ransom note to communicate the demands. Pouu is no exception in this regard. It gives the encrypted files .pouu file extension and creates a ransom note named “_readme.txt”. You can read it on the image above.
That said, every STOP/Djvu virus has the same demands, $980 or $490, depending on how quickly the victim pays. As even the “discounted” price is quite high, you may want to consider alternate ways to remove Pouu ransomware and decrypt .pouu files. The note says that it’s not possible to recover the files without paying the hackers, but this is not true. Although they’re not 100% reliable, these methods do exist; read about them in the guide below.