Ungluk ransomware / virus (Free Instructions)

Ungluk virus Removal Guide

What is Ungluk ransomware virus?

What is Ungluk ransomware planning on your computer?

Ungluk virus also known as Bitmessage ransomware is a malicious program that encrypts victims’ personal files and offers to buy them out for a considerable sum of money. Hackers target the most common file formats including media, Office documents or archives, and append .off, .0ff or similar extensions to each of them. This ensures that the victims are easier manipulated into paying the ransom. Besides, to gain bigger profit this virus targets companies with large computer networks; nevertheless, it always starts with an infection of a single device. For the system infiltration, the hackers employ malicious spamming campaigns which distribute the infected files as seemingly inconspicuous email attachments. Unfortunately, as such attachments are downloaded and opened, the computer becomes infected with the Ungluk ransomware which immediately starts running the system scan in search of files to encrypt. For this purpose, the virus uses strong encryption algorithm which can only be decrypted using the private key. This key is kept under close hacker supervision and is impossible to acquire any other way than by buying it. Nevertheless, it is probably the riskiest thing to do when infected with this type of infection. The criminals may not provide you with the decryption key at all, or they may send you some nonfunctional version of it, in both of the cases leaving your files encrypted. Ungluk removal, even if it does not help decrypt files, is a much safer option. When the malicious virus components are eliminated from the computer with the help of FortectIntego or other anti-malware, no further file encryption is possible, so you can create new files or try to recover the encrypted ones.

Picture of the Ungluk ransomware

Ungluk malware is known to create two types of files on the infected computer FILESAREGONE.TXT and IHAVEYOURSECRET.KEY. Both of these documents are placed in every folder of the encrypted computer so that the user could easily access and view them. IHAVEYOURSECRET.KEY features a block of symbols which presumably represent the public key by which the files were initially encrypted. FILESAREGONE.TXT, on the other hand, includes a ransom note which goes as follows:

Hello.
All your files have been encrypted using our extremely strong private key. There is no way to recover them without our assistance. If you want to get your files back, you must be ready to pay for them. If you are broke and poor, sorry, we cannot help you. If you are ready to pay, then get in touch with us using a secure and anonymous p2p messenger. We have to use a messenger because standard emails get blocked quickly and if our email gets blocked your files will be lost forever.
Go to http://bitmessage.org/, download and run Bitmessage. Click Your Identities tab > then click New > then click OK (this will generate your personal address, you need to do this just once). Then click Send tab.
TO: xxxxxxxxxxxx
SUBJECT: name of your PC or your IP address or both.
MESSAGE: Hi, I am ready to pay.
Click Send button.
You are done.
To get the fastest reply from us with all further instructions, please keep your Bitmessage running on the computer at all times, if possible, or as often as you can, because Bitmessage is a bit slow and it takes time to send and get messages. If you cooperate and follow the instructions, you will get all your files back intact and very, very soon. Thank you.

The insistence of using Bitmessage for communication with the criminals only proves that these people are serious about their business and are not willing to get caught in the process of money extortion. The hackers purposefully refrain from indicating the amount of money that is demanded for the file encryption. This suggests that they adjust the ransom for each of the infected victims individually, taking into considerations the importance of the files and the amount of the infected devices (in the case of the computer network attack). Though it is not indicated in the ransom note, the virus adds extensions such as .0ff, .bleep, .1999, .H3LL, and .0x0 to the infected files, so if you are in doubt about what virus has infected your PC, pay attention to these unusual filename endings. When possible, remove Ungluk from the infected device using a sophisticated antivirus software.

How do you get infected with ransomware?

As we have already pointed out in the beginning of the article, Ungluk is a virus that spreads around as most of the other counterparts on the same category — through online spam. The malicious virus payload is carried around by emails imitating invoices, flight bookings, parcel delivery confirmations, etc. Nevertheless, it is also possible that Ungluk may be brought with the help of exploit kits, Trojans, and other viruses. Frankly speaking, the virus may be hiding behind any corner. Thus, trying to avoid the virus is not the best way to secure your files. If you are really concerned about your data, keep backups of your files and update them regularly.

How should you approach Ungluk removal and data recovery:

As you can probably tell, Ungluk virus is not a cyber infection that will pass by without leaving a trace. Most likely, it will corrupt your personal files and cause major trouble recovering them. However, if you complete Ungluk removal properly, you may have a chance of retrieving at least some of your files. To get started, obtain a reputable antivirus utility and start scanning the system. Once the scan is done, your computer should be safe to use. The system scan may not initiate due to the virus blocking your anti-malware utility. If you encounter such an obstacle, follow the instructions below to eliminate it and remove Ungluk for good.

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What to do if failed?
If you failed to fix virus damage using Fortect Intego, submit a question to our support team and provide as much details as possible.
Fortect Intego has a free limited scanner. Fortect Intego offers more through scan when you purchase its full version. When free scanner detects issues, you can fix them using free manual repairs or you can decide to purchase the full version in order to fix them automatically.
Alternative Software
Different software has a different purpose. If you didn’t succeed in fixing corrupted files with Fortect, try running SpyHunter 5.
Alternative Software
Different software has a different purpose. If you didn’t succeed in fixing corrupted files with Intego, try running Combo Cleaner.

Getting rid of Ungluk virus. Follow these steps

Manual removal using Safe Mode

Important! →
Manual removal guide might be too complicated for regular computer users. It requires advanced IT knowledge to be performed correctly (if vital system files are removed or damaged, it might result in full Windows compromise), and it also might take hours to complete. Therefore, we highly advise using the automatic method provided above instead.

Step 1. Access Safe Mode with Networking

Manual malware removal should be best performed in the Safe Mode environment. 

Windows 7 / Vista / XP
  1. Click Start > Shutdown > Restart > OK.
  2. When your computer becomes active, start pressing F8 button (if that does not work, try F2, F12, Del, etc. – it all depends on your motherboard model) multiple times until you see the Advanced Boot Options window.
  3. Select Safe Mode with Networking from the list. Windows 7/XP
Windows 10 / Windows 8
  1. Right-click on Start button and select Settings.
    Settings
  2. Scroll down to pick Update & Security.
    Update and security
  3. On the left side of the window, pick Recovery.
  4. Now scroll down to find Advanced Startup section.
  5. Click Restart now.
    Reboot
  6. Select Troubleshoot. Choose an option
  7. Go to Advanced options. Advanced options
  8. Select Startup Settings. Startup settings
  9. Press Restart.
  10. Now press 5 or click 5) Enable Safe Mode with Networking. Enable safe mode

Step 2. Shut down suspicious processes

Windows Task Manager is a useful tool that shows all the processes running in the background. If malware is running a process, you need to shut it down:

  1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard to open Windows Task Manager.
  2. Click on More details.
    Open task manager
  3. Scroll down to Background processes section, and look for anything suspicious.
  4. Right-click and select Open file location.
    Open file location
  5. Go back to the process, right-click and pick End Task.
    End task
  6. Delete the contents of the malicious folder.

Step 3. Check program Startup

  1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard to open Windows Task Manager.
  2. Go to Startup tab.
  3. Right-click on the suspicious program and pick Disable.
    Startup

Step 4. Delete virus files

Malware-related files can be found in various places within your computer. Here are instructions that could help you find them:

  1. Type in Disk Cleanup in Windows search and press Enter.
    Disk cleanup
  2. Select the drive you want to clean (C: is your main drive by default and is likely to be the one that has malicious files in).
  3. Scroll through the Files to delete list and select the following:

    Temporary Internet Files
    Downloads
    Recycle Bin
    Temporary files

  4. Pick Clean up system files.
    Delete temp files
  5. You can also look for other malicious files hidden in the following folders (type these entries in Windows Search and press Enter):

    %AppData%
    %LocalAppData%
    %ProgramData%
    %WinDir%

After you are finished, reboot the PC in normal mode.

Remove Ungluk using System Restore

  • Step 1: Reboot your computer to Safe Mode with Command Prompt
    Windows 7 / Vista / XP
    1. Click Start Shutdown Restart OK.
    2. When your computer becomes active, start pressing F8 multiple times until you see the Advanced Boot Options window.
    3. Select Command Prompt from the list Select 'Safe Mode with Command Prompt'

    Windows 10 / Windows 8
    1. Press the Power button at the Windows login screen. Now press and hold Shift, which is on your keyboard, and click Restart..
    2. Now select Troubleshoot Advanced options Startup Settings and finally press Restart.
    3. Once your computer becomes active, select Enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt in Startup Settings window. Select 'Enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt'
  • Step 2: Restore your system files and settings
    1. Once the Command Prompt window shows up, enter cd restore and click Enter. Enter 'cd restore' without quotes and press 'Enter'
    2. Now type rstrui.exe and press Enter again.. Enter 'rstrui.exe' without quotes and press 'Enter'
    3. When a new window shows up, click Next and select your restore point that is prior the infiltration of Ungluk. After doing that, click Next. When 'System Restore' window shows up, select 'Next' Select your restore point and click 'Next'
    4. Now click Yes to start system restore. Click 'Yes' and start system restore
    Once you restore your system to a previous date, download and scan your computer with FortectIntego and make sure that Ungluk removal is performed successfully.

Bonus: Recover your data

Guide which is presented above is supposed to help you remove Ungluk from your computer. To recover your encrypted files, we recommend using a detailed guide prepared by 2-spyware.com security experts.

If your files are encrypted by Ungluk, you can use several methods to restore them:

Data retrieval solution no.1: Data Recovery Pro

Data Recovery Pro is an automatic option that can be run even by the least experienced computer user. This software is simple but powerful, so you can safely use it for the data recover on your computer after the Ungluk virus attack.

  • Download Data Recovery Pro;
  • Follow the steps of Data Recovery Setup and install the program on your computer;
  • Launch it and scan your computer for files encrypted by Ungluk ransomware;
  • Restore them.

Data retrieval solution no.2: Windows Previous Versions feature

Windows Previous Versions feature is your best data recovery option in case you want to recover individual files. However, you should keep in mind that this technique will only be functional with the System Restore functions enabled.

  • Find an encrypted file you need to restore and right-click on it;
  • Select “Properties” and go to “Previous versions” tab;
  • Here, check each of available copies of the file in “Folder versions”. You should select the version you want to recover and click “Restore”.

Data retrieval solution no.3: ShadowExplorer

ShadowExplorer can be used to recover files that still have their Volume Shadow Copies on the computer. If the virus has deleted them though, you may have to skip to some other recovery method instead.

  • Download Shadow Explorer (http://shadowexplorer.com/);
  • Follow a Shadow Explorer Setup Wizard and install this application on your computer;
  • Launch the program and go through the drop down menu on the top left corner to select the disk of your encrypted data. Check what folders are there;
  • Right-click on the folder you want to restore and select “Export”. You can also select where you want it to be stored.

Finally, you should always think about the protection of crypto-ransomwares. In order to protect your computer from Ungluk and other ransomwares, use a reputable anti-spyware, such as FortectIntego, SpyHunter 5Combo Cleaner or Malwarebytes

How to prevent from getting ransomware

Choose a proper web browser and improve your safety with a VPN tool

Online spying has got momentum in recent years and people are getting more and more interested in how to protect their privacy online. One of the basic means to add a layer of security – choose the most private and secure web browser. Although web browsers can't grant full privacy protection and security, some of them are much better at sandboxing, HTTPS upgrading, active content blocking, tracking blocking, phishing protection, and similar privacy-oriented features. However, if you want true anonymity, we suggest you employ a powerful Private Internet Access VPN – it can encrypt all the traffic that comes and goes out of your computer, preventing tracking completely.

 

Lost your files? Use data recovery software

While some files located on any computer are replaceable or useless, others can be extremely valuable. Family photos, work documents, school projects – these are types of files that we don't want to lose. Unfortunately, there are many ways how unexpected data loss can occur: power cuts, Blue Screen of Death errors, hardware failures, crypto-malware attack, or even accidental deletion.

To ensure that all the files remain intact, you should prepare regular data backups. You can choose cloud-based or physical copies you could restore from later in case of a disaster. If your backups were lost as well or you never bothered to prepare any, Data Recovery Pro can be your only hope to retrieve your invaluable files.

About the author
Jake Doevan
Jake Doevan - Computer technology expert

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