While the above process is still occurring, notifications known as _readme.txt would also be saved on the victim’s computer. The _readme.txt is a ransom note informing the victim about what just happened any why they would expect to pay a ransom fee which would prompt them to release decryption tools that enable them to recover their encrypted files.

The ransom note demands money

Two email addresses (support@bestyourmail.ch, supportsys@airmail.cc) will also be released to facilitate further communication between both parties. If the victim makes any attempt to reach out to the cybercriminals, they would respond by stating that the ransom fee is $980, even though they would be willing to accept only 50% of it, which amounts to $490, but with the condition that payment must be made before 72 hours elapse. Additionally, they would warn that payment can only be made by purchasing cryptocurrency worth the ransom fee and transferring same to a digital wallet address that would be provided by them. They make use of such a cryptic payment method because it helps them to remain undetected. However, victims of STOP/DJVU ransomware virus attacks are advised never to comply with the demands of cybercriminals. It is even best not to communicate with them because nothing positive ever comes out of it. The FBI with the support of other cybersecurity agencies globally all accedes to this and some of the reasons given by them are provided below for your consideration:

Making huge sums of money available to cybercriminals is counterproductive because it gives them an incentive to continue being a menace to other computer users.Payment of ransom in any form might be considered illegal by law.There is no guarantee that reliable decryption tools would be provided by them even after receiving ransom payment.More funds at their disposal would enable them to increase their capacity to harm greater number of people.When victims pay ransom, they make themselves vulnerable to future extortion by greedy cybercriminals.

Try to secure your computer as soon as possible

While awareness is being created about VVEW ransomware virus, it is also important to note that other dangerous Trojans such as RATs usually accompany them. RAT is an acronym that stands for Remote Access Trojan and is used in stealing sensitive information without the victim being aware. Such information that could be extracted by similar threats includes passwords, banking details, cryptocurrency wallets, software login details etc. The loss of such sensitive information could result in more problems for the victim. That is why it is very important to remove VVEW ransomware virus ASAP once it is detected in any computer. This can be effectively done by choosing Safe Mode with Networking once the computer is switched on.

Ransomware Summary

REPAIR VIRUS DAMAGE Files locked by this ransomware are shown in a test data folder below.

How to Safeguard Your Computer against STOP/DJVU Ransomware Virus

Computer users need to be careful about their activities online in order to avoid getting their systems infected with VVEW ransomware virus. Only genuine software contents downloaded from the official pages of original content producers or their recommended third party agents should be used in your computer. Going to online torrents platform or using illegal peer-2-peer sharing methods is dangerous and can lead to ransomware attack. Likewise, emails and attachments from unrecognized sources should not be opened. Cybercriminals often embed malware on pirated software contents or emails/attachments and they become active once downloaded to random computers. That is why they should be avoided at all costs. Cybercriminals make use of these deceptive methods in order to deceive unsuspecting computer users and achieve their inordinate plans of infecting their computers and encrypting their files so they could extort money from them. Cybercriminals are aware that some computer users don’t like paying the fees charged by the original software content producers, so they cunningly provide them a pirated alternative while embedding ransomware in them. Here are some of the popular software contents often used by them:

Adobe Illustrator;Adobe Photoshop;Adobe Premiere Pro;Corel Draw;Fifa 20;Cubase;VMware Workstation;League of Legends;Tenorshare 4ukey;AutoCad;Internet Download Manager.

Computer users should understand that paying the fees asked by software content producers is the best thing to do. They would be helping the industry to grow while also protecting their computers from harm. Those providing cloned alternatives are criminals trying to reap from where they did not sow. They’re never doing it to help the users but rather to spread highly destructive ransomware for extortion purposes. Based on that, online torrents platforms, P2P sharing platforms, and opening of emails or attachments from unrecognizable sources should all be avoided. Otherwise, you may end up paying a lot more as ransom fees and still fail to recover your encrypted files. Popular files like PDF, XLS and DOCX among similar ones are preferably used by cybercriminals due to their macro function abilities. They make it possible for them to attach ransomware virus on cloned software contents and also trigger them once downloaded on any computer. There is hardly any reliable solution against STOP/DJVU ransomware encryption except being proactive enough in avoiding infection. Most of the sites claiming to have solutions to it are fraudulent and may even make the situation worse for victims by infecting their computer with additional malware. However, two brands known as DiskTuna and Emsisoft have proven reliable as decryption/data repair tools.

How to Remove VVEW Ransomware Virus

To effectively remove VVEW ransomware virus from an infected computer, the system should be set up in Safe Mode with Networking when it’s still booting. Afterwards, genuine antivirus software should be activated as well and scanned. To finalise the cleanup, we recommend downloading RESTORO (review available here) to repair virus damage on Windows OS files. After removing the virus, there are other actions that need to be taken as well, as listed below:

Search for available backups to restore lost files.Report to the police.Change all passwords that were used on the infected computer.

In conclusion, it is best to be proactive at all times by ensuring that all risk factors that expose computers to virus infection are avoided. 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 VVEW 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 VVEW 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 VVEW files

Fix and open large VVEW 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. VVEW 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 VVEW files, follow the given tutorial.

Meanings of decryptor’s messages

The VVEW 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 VVEW 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 VVEW 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.