The sole aim of HHQA ransomware is to temporarily lock victim’s work files, study material or simply personal memories with military-grade encryption algorithms typically used to secure information so that only the person who holds the private decryption key could access it. To be precise, this ransomware is designed to encrypt the first 150 KB of each file, which makes the whole file inaccessible yet keeps the whole encryption procedure speedy. In this case, the attackers have the decryption tools, and suggest selling them for the victim for a hefty ransom. However, considering the encryption method used, some files such as videos or audio files may be repaired with some data loss at the beginning of the file as explained in this guide. HHQA decryption tool price ranges from $490 to $980 depending on how quickly the victim writes to the criminals and pays the ransom to them. According to the note, if paid within 72 hours from the infection timestamp, the victim gets a 50% discount, however if paid later the price jumps back to the initial amount which is $980. Of course, once contacted via email, the attackers explain that the victim has to purchase Bitcoins or other cryptocurrency for the said amount and transfer it to the attacker’s virtual wallet. This transaction type keeps the crooks anonymous and prevents authorities from tracing them down. Additionally, the note suggests that the victim can send one small encrypted file for test decryption. Geek’s Advice team experts do not recommend paying the ransom. FBI also doesn’t encourage such practice. There are more than enough reasons why you shouldn’t:

Keep in mind that if you decide to pay the criminals, it doesn’t automatically guarantee that you will recover your files. You might end up wasting your hard-earned money and receive a faulty decryption tool or no response from the criminals at all;Cybercrime actors earn millions of US dollars each year from ransomware attacks. Please, do not contribute to the growth of this number as this simply encourages the criminals to continue their activities, plus lures other people to join this criminal world.Paying a ransom can be as illegal as asking for it. Check your local laws regarding it;Viruses that belong to STOP/DJVU ransomware family such as HHQA virus run AZORULT Trojan on compromised computers. It is a stealthy malware that can grab sensitive details that can be used to blackmail you later and demand more money. Do you really want to spend your money on attackers who will potentially try to extort you again?

REPAIR VIRUS DAMAGE

Ransomware damage in detail

At the beginning of the attack, HHQA ransomware runs a set of processes, each designed for a different purpose. For example, this malware runs a fake Windows update prompt under a disguised name winupdate.exe. The aim of this process is to trick the victim into thinking that sudden system slowdown is caused by Windows update components being downloaded and installed; unfortunately, it simply conceals work done by another 4-character named executable file which scans computer and connected drives and encrypts them. Additionally, the virus runs a Command-Line task to delete Volume Shadow Copies from the computer: vssadmin.exe Delete Shadows /All /Quiet This prevents the victim from using System Restore points to restore files for free. Next, the virus attempts to restrict a set of online websites on a computer so that the victim could not access them for ransomware attack-related information and help. For this, it modifies Windows HOSTS file by adding a list of domains and mapping them to localhost IP. Therefore, whenever the computer user attempts to access one of blocked websites, DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN error will appear in browser. It must be said that the victim won’t be able to access these domains directly and via other sources such as search engines. Therefore, to be able to access all websites again, HOSTS file must be reset back to default. The ransomware also drops a set of files that helps to keep information about the victim. One of such files is called bowsakkdestx.txt (which holds victim’s public encryption key and personal ID string) and PersonalID.txt (contains victim’s identification number only).

Ransomware drops information-stealing Trojan

Another important detail to mention is that HHQA virus, just like other variants from STOP/DJVU strain, has a tendency to arrive in tandem with AZORULT Trojan. It is a well-known information stealer that falls into Remote Access Trojans (RAT) category. In other words, malicious actors may use it to perform illegal actions on your computer remotely, including, but not limited to:

Dropping more malware to the computer and executing it;Stealing cryptocurrency wallets;Stealing Steam, Telegram login credentials;Viewing or deleting files on victim’s computer;Stealing browser cookies, saved passwords, visited websites list and more.

Due to reasons listed above, we strongly recommend you to remove HHQA ransomware virus using professional antivirus of your choice. Our team recommends INTEGO Antivirus, which is VB100 certified security software that provides real-time protection against malicious downloads and stops you from entering deceptive websites. Once you remove the malware, consider scanning with RESTORO, a highly-rated tool to repair virus damage on Windows OS files.

Ransomware Summary

REPAIR VIRUS DAMAGE

File-encrypting virus distribution in a nutshell

File-encrypting computer viruses are distributed using traditional malware proliferation tactics. When it comes to STOP/DJVU ransomware variants such as HHQA virus, they tend to hide in illegal torrent downloads, mostly various software cracks, keygens and similar. Victims infected with previous versions from this ransomware strain report downloading infectious cracks for these programs:

Adobe Photoshop;Corel Draw;Cubase;Adobe Illustrator;Windows activation tools such as KMSPico.

While all of them (except KMSPico) are legitimate and well-known programs, attempts to activate their licenses in illegal ways can result in severe computer infection. Cybercriminals know that many computer users head to various file-sharing websites only to look for cracked software variants. It is an ideal environment to place disguised ransomware there as common peer-to-peer download clients typically do not check for malware in the files. What is even worse, users tend to ignore their security software warnings when opening such downloads. For this reason, we strongly encourage you to get software licenses legally and from trusted sources only. Otherwise, you might end up infected with severe malware that will try to swindle much more money than a legitimate software license would have cost to you. Malicious email spam is yet another ransomware distribution technique used nowadays. The attackers compose convincing messages accompanied with attachments called as invoice, missing/pending payment, delivery tracking details or similar that come in popular file formats such as DOCX, XLS, PDF or others. Since these formats allow execution of scripts, opening them can simply activate a code that will connect to a remote domain, download and execute a malicious file on your computer. For this reason, we suggest that you look for these red flags in a message and generally only open emails that you EXPECTED to receive:

Urgent message tone and suggestions to open attached contents immediately;The sender claims to be someone from a well-known companySpoofed email address;Your email box provider marks the letter as spam.

Final distribution technique that you should know especially if you’re already a victim of a ransomware attack is that criminals use fake decryption tools to disguise other ransomware strains. In other words, desperate attempts to download so-called decryption tools from shady websites can result in a second attack and consequently your files will be double-encrypted. Onevirus example that’s been known for usage of such distribution technique is ZORAB malware which hides in fake STOP/DJVU ransomware decryption tools.

Remove HHQA ransomware and decrypt your files

We recommend you to remove HHQA ransomware virus without any delay. For that, we have prepared a removal guide which you can find down below. We suggest using a 2-step rescue plan: first, remove the malware from your computer using professional security software such as INTEGO Antivirus, which provides robust real-time protection. Next, we recommend downloading RESTORO to scan your PC and repair virus damage on Windows OS files. Once HHQA ransomware virus is gone, consider taking the following actions:

Report cybercrime incident to your local authority responsible for handling such cases. You can find some references below the article.Use data backups to restore files (if you have them).Try instructions to decrypt or repair files affected by STOP/DJVU versions.We also recommend changing your passwords, especially for sites that you chose to save login credentials for in your browser.

OUR GEEKS RECOMMEND Our team recommends a two-step rescue plan to remove ransomware and other remaining malware from your computer, plus repair caused virus damage to the system: GeeksAdvice.com editors select recommended products based on their effectiveness. We may earn a commission from affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. Learn more. Get INTEGO ANTIVIRUS for Windows to remove ransomware, Trojans, adware and other spyware and malware variants and protect your PC and network drives 24/7. This VB100-certified security software uses state-of-art technology to provide protection against ransomware, Zero-Day attacks and advanced threats, Intego Web Shield blocks dangerous websites, phishing attacks, malicious downloads and installation of potentially unwanted programs. Use INTEGO Antivirus to remove detected threats from your computer. Read full review here. RESTORO provides a free scan that helps to identify hardware, security and stability issues and presents a comprehensive report which can help you to locate and fix detected issues manually. It is a great PC repair software to use after you remove malware with professional antivirus. The full version of software will fix detected issues and repair virus damage caused to your Windows OS files automatically. RESTORO uses AVIRA scanning engine to detect existing spyware and malware. If any are found, the software will eliminate them. Read full review here.

Method 1. Enter Safe Mode with Networking

Before you try to remove HHQA ransomware virus virus, you must start your computer in Safe Mode with Networking. Below, we provide the easiest ways to boot PC in the said mode, but you can find additional ones in this in-depth tutorial on our website – How to Start Windows in Safe Mode. Also, if you prefer a video version of the tutorial, check our guide How to Start Windows in Safe Mode on Youtube. Instructions for Windows XP/Vista/7 users Instructions for Windows 8/8.1/10/11 users Now, you can search for and remove HHQA ransomware virus files. It is very hard to identify files and registry keys that belong to the ransomware virus, Besides, malware creators tend to rename and change them repeatedly. Therefore, the easiest way to uninstall such type of a computer virus is to use a reliable security program such as INTEGO Antivirus. For virus damage repair, consider using RESTORO.

Method 2. Use System Restore

In order to use System Restore, you must have a system restore point, created either manually or automatically. Instructions for Windows XP/Vista/7 users Instructions for Windows 8/8.1/10/11 users After restoring the system, we recommend scanning the system with antivirus or anti-malware software. In most cases, there won’t be any malware remains, but it never hurts to double-check. In addition, we highly recommend checking ransomware prevention guidelines provided by our experts in order to protect your PC against similar viruses in the future.

Alternative software recommendations

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Removing spyware and malware is one step towards cybersecurity. To protect yourself against ever-evolving threats, we strongly recommend purchasing a Premium version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, which provides security based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Includes ransomware protection. See pricing options and protect yourself now.

System Mechanic Ultimate Defense If you’re looking for an all-in-one system maintenance suite that has 7 core components providing powerful real-time protection, on-demand malware removal, system optimization, data recovery, password manager, online privacy protection and secure driver wiping technology. Therefore, due to its wide-range of capabilities, System Mechanic Ultimate Defense deserves Geek’s Advice approval. Get it now for 50% off. You may also be interested in its full review.

Disclaimer. This site includes affiliate links. We may earn a small commission by recommending certain products, at no additional cost for you. We only choose quality software and services to recommend.

Decrypt HHQA files

Fix and open large HHQA files easily:

It is reported that STOP/DJVU ransomware versions encrypt only the beginning 150 KB of each file to ensure that the virus manages to affect all files on the system. In some cases, the malicious program might skip some files at all. That said, we recommend testing this method on several big (>1GB) files first.

STOP/DJVU decryption tool usage guide

STOP/DJVU ransomware versions are grouped into old and new variants. HHQA ransomware virus is considered the new STOP/DJVU variant, just like BPTO, ISWR, ISZA, BPSM, ZOUU, MBTF, ZNSM (find full list here). This means full data decryption is now possible only if you have been affected by offline encryption key. To decrypt your files, you will have to download Emsisoft Decryptor for STOP DJVU, a tool created and maintained by a genius security researcher Michael Gillespie. Note! Please do not spam the security researcher with questions whether he can recover your files encrypted with online key - it is not possible. In order to test the tool and see if it can decrypt HHQA files, follow the given tutorial.

Meanings of decryptor’s messages

The HHQA decryption tool might display several different messages after failed attempt to restore your files. You might receive one of the following messages: Error: Unable to decrypt file with ID: [example ID] This message typically means that there is no corresponding decryption key in the decryptor’s database. No key for New Variant online ID: [example ID]Notice: this ID appears to be an online ID, decryption is impossible This message informs that your files were encrypted with online key, meaning no one else has the same encryption/decryption key pair, therefore data recovery without paying the criminals is impossible. Result: No key for new variant offline ID: [example ID]This ID appears to be an offline ID. Decryption may be possible in the future. If you were informed that an offline key was used, but files could not be restored, it means that the offline decryption key isn’t available yet. However, receiving this message is extremely good news, meaning that it might be possible to restore your HHQA extension files in the future. It can take a few months until the decryption key gets found and uploaded to the decryptor. We recommend you to follow updates regarding the decryptable DJVU versions here. We strongly recommend backing up your encrypted data and waiting.

Victims of HHQA ransomware virus should report the Internet crime incident to the official government fraud and scam website according to their country:

In the United States, go to the On Guard Online website.In Australia, go to the SCAMwatch website.In Germany, go to the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik website.In Ireland, go to the An Garda Síochána website.In New Zealand, go to the Consumer Affairs Scams website.In the United Kingdom, go to the Action Fraud website.In Canada, go to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.In India, go to Indian National Cybercrime Reporting Portal.In France, go to the Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information.

If you can’t find an authority corresponding to your location on this list, we recommend using any search engine to look up “[your country name] report cyber crime”. This should lead you to the right authority website. We also recommend staying away from third-party crime report services that are often paid. It costs nothing to report Internet crime to official authorities. Another recommendation is to contact your country’s or region’s federal police or communications authority.