Nuke ransomware / virus (Improved Instructions) - Oct 2016 update

What is Nuke ransomware virus?

How hazardous is the Nuke ransomware?

Nuke virus is one of the latest ransomware infections that feature frightening names, such as Apocalypse, CrySiS and terrorize the online community. In other words, the cyber infections really live up to their names, thus, they should be avoided at all costs. In the following article, we will elaborate more about the Nuke ransomware – one of the newer additions to this nasty family of viruses. We will discuss how the virus behaves on the infected devices, how to avoid it, how to lessen the damage if infected and, finally, provide some recommendations for the Nuke removal.

First, we should remind you that ransomware viruses are designed to extort money from the users whose files they forcefully lock after stealthily infiltrating computers. Though new ransomware viruses are getting more advanced, in their essence, they do not differ much from their predecessors. But that does not mean we do not have to talk about them anymore. On the opposite, the more we know about these viruses, the greater chance we have to outsmart them. Let’s look at Nuke, for instance.

The primary goal of this ransomware is to infiltrate the computer by stealth. This immediately suggests that some additional, automatic system protection is necessary to block potential attacks if we cannot stop the virus ourselves. Obtaining FortectIntego or other anti-malware software is a good place to start. If you did not manage to avoid the infection, though, the next step is to lessen the damage. Nuke locks computers with military grade AES and RSA encryption algorithms and, sadly, in most cases it means that full data recovery might be impossible. But you can try diminishing the spread of the infection by disconnecting your computer from the network and initiating the antivirus system scan. You should do that as soon as you notice something suspicious, for instance, if your files feature extensions “.nuclear55” instead of the regular ones, or never-before-seen documents have appeared on your desktop. If applied during the initial stages of the infection, this strategy might help curb the virus and save some of your personal files. Another way to reduce the risk of greater losses is to refuse recovering data using the decryption tools the criminals may push upon you. Though they will give you guarantees, allow to unlock one of your chosen test files (for that you should send them the file via given email under the subject name “FILE RECOVERY“) and promise full system decryption, you should not trust any of this humbug and remove Nuke from your computer. Otherwise, even if you pay, the scammers may run away with your money and your decryption key.

Talking more about the technical side of the virus, an interesting detail worth noting is that the virus is found under a file format .pdb which is untypical to ransomware viruses. These Program Database files usually hold debugging and project state data. Nuke.pdb file, on the other hand, encrypts files, changes desktop background and creates !!_RECOVERY_instructions_!!.html and !!_RECOVERY_instructions_!!.txt files on the infected computer’s desktop. These files contain payment instructions and urge users to contact the cyber criminals via given opengates@india.com email address. The users are given 72 hours to pay the 2 Bitcoin worth of ransom (this currently equals around 1280 USD), otherwise, the private RSA key which the criminals introduce as the only chance to recover data will be destroyed. As we have already pointed out, we do not recommend communicating with the cyber criminals and suggest reporting the incident to the responsible institutions. As for the data recovery, removing the virus from the infected device will not unlock your files, but you may try other means to bypass the encryption. We discuss some of these methods below the article.

Means of ransomware distribution:

With several exceptions, there are three basic strategies used to distribute most of the ransomware infections around. They are all automatic, so Nuke malware creators do not have to sit around and waste their time sending out its malicious files by hand. A large part of the distribution is done via spam campaigns carried out by botnets. Deceptive emails with potentially infectious attachments reach our inboxes every day, so there is no reason why the Nuke virus could not end up there too. Also, there is a high chance of getting infected via malicious links, advertisements or products that you may be randomly offered online. You should be especially careful if your computer is infected with adware-type programs, because these nasty parasites (though not malicious themselves) significantly increase the risk of planting a ransomware on your PC. So, even the least dangerous computer infections may lead to disastrous consequences, so regular system check-ups are simply inevitable.

Can you actually nuke the Nuke ransomware:

Nuke virus is still under constant development, so it is rather difficult analyze it thoroughly. The experts haven’t managed to come up with its decryption tool either. Thus, you simply have no other choice but to remove Nuke ransomware from your computer. Seems too complicated? Well, it sure is doable, though it may require some extra effort. But first, you should try scanning your computer with automatic antivirus tools. If this process does not go according to plan and your antivirus utility crashes, then scroll down below and follow the indicated instructions. These should help stop some of the virus malicious processes and let your antivirus proceed with the Nuke removal. Below these instructions you will also find data recovery guide which we suggest using if you want to try to recover the encrypted data.