The Bjrtziwsgw virus falls under the Snatch ransomware family. Harmful software of this type encrypts all the data on your PC (images, text files, excel tables, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, creating the HOW TO RESTORE YOUR FILES.TXT text files in each directory with the encrypted files.
Bjrtziwsgw virus: what is known so far?
☝️ A scientifically correct denomination for the Bjrtziwsgw would be “a Snatch family ransomware malicious agent”.
Bjrtziwsgw will add its own .bjrtziwsgw extension to every file’s name. For example, an image named “photo.jpg” will be renamed to “photo.jpg.bjrtziwsgw”. In the same manner, the Excel file with the name “table.xlsx” will be renamed to “table.xlsx.bjrtziwsgw”, and so forth.
In every folder containing the encoded files, a HOW TO RESTORE YOUR FILES.TXT file will be found. It is a ransom money note. Therein you can find information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the Bjrtziwsgw developers. That is how they do it.
Bjrtziwsgw outline:
| Name | Bjrtziwsgw Virus |
| Ransomware family1 | Snatch ransomware |
| Extension | .bjrtziwsgw |
| Ransomware note | HOW TO RESTORE YOUR FILES.TXT |
| Detection | Crytex.Virus.FileInfector.DDS, Win32/Filecoder.OLC, Malware-Cryptor.InstallCore.5 |
| Symptoms | Your files (photos, videos, documents) have a .bjrtziwsgw extension and you can’t open them. |
| Fix Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by Bjrtziwsgw virus |
In the image below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Bjrtziwsgw looks like. Each filename has the “.bjrtziwsgw” extension appended to it.
How did my computer get infected with Bjrtziwsgw ransomware?
There are many possible ways of ransomware infiltration.
There are currently three most exploited methods for evil-doers to have ransomware planted in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer file transfer.
If you open your inbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, delivery agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose mailer is strange to you, be wary of opening those letters. They are most likely to have a viral item attached to them. Thus it is even riskier to download any attachments that come with letters like these.
As for the peer-to-peer networks like torrents or eMule, the danger is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Web. You can never guess what you download until you get it. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy resources. Also, it is reasonable to scan the folder containing the downloaded objects with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is done.
How do I get rid of the Bjrtziwsgw virus?
It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your files, the Bjrtziwsgw virus will most likely install the Azorult Spyware on your computer to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned spyware3 can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.
Often criminals would decrypt few of your files to prove that they really have the decryption tool. As Bjrtziwsgw virus is a relatively recent ransomware, safety measures engineers have not yet found a way to undo its work. Nevertheless, the decoding tools are frequently upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.
Understandably, if the hackers do the job of encrypting victim’s essential data, the hopeless person will most likely fulfill their demands. Despite that, paying a ransom gives no guarantee that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still dangerous. After obtaining the ransom, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports of racketeers just vanishing after getting the ransom without even writing back.
The optimal safety measure against ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud disk or at least on an external drive. Surely, that might be insufficient. Your most crucial thing could be that one you were working on when it all happened. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the system restoration.
There are other ransomware products, besides Bjrtziwsgw, that work similarly. For instance, Mppn, Uyit, Mbtf, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Bjrtziwsgw are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is the same: files become encrypted, their extensions changed, ransom notes appear in every folder containing encrypted files.
Some fortunate users were able to decrypt the blocked files with the help of the free software provided by anti-ransomware specialists. Sometimes the hackers accidentally send the decoding key to the wronged in the ransom note. Such an epic fail allows the victim to restore the files. But obviously, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a criminals’ tool to lay their hands on the money of their victims.
How to avoid ransomware infection?
Bjrtziwsgw ransomware has no endless power, so as any similar malware.
You can armour your computer from its infiltration in several easy steps:
- Never open any letters from unknown senders with unknown addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are expecting (how can you win in a lottery without participating in it?). In case the email subject is likely something you are expecting, scrutinize all elements of the dubious email carefully. A fake letter will always contain mistakes.
- Never use cracked or untrusted software. Trojan viruses are often distributed as a part of cracked software, possibly under the guise of “patch” which prevents the license check. Understandably, potentially dangerous programs are very hard to distinguish from trustworthy ones, because trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. You can try to find information on this program on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal way is not to use such software.
Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft4
Download Removal Tool.
Run the setup file.
Press “Install” button.
Once installed, Anti-Malware will automatically run.
Wait for the Anti-Malware scan to complete.
Click on “Clean Now”.
FAQ
🤔 How can I open “.bjrtziwsgw” files?Is it possible to open“.bjrtziwsgw” files?
There’s no way to do it, unless the files “.bjrtziwsgw” files are decrypted.
🤔 The encrypted files are very important to me. How can I decrypt them quickly?
Hopefully, you have made a copy of those important files. Otherwise, you might try to employ System Restore. The only question is whether you have saved any Restore Points that would be helpful now. All other solutions require time.
🤔 What to do if the Bjrtziwsgw malware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation code.
🤔 What could help the situation right now?
Many of the blocked files might still be within your reach
- If you exchanged your important files by email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
- You might have shared photographs or videos with your friends or relatives. Just ask them to give those images back to you.
- If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Internet, you can try doing it again.
- Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud drives might have all those files too.
- Maybe you still have the needed files on your old computer, a notebook, phone, external storage, etc.
HINT: You can employ file recovery programs6 to get your lost data back since ransomware encrypts the copies of your files, removing the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can learn how to use PhotoRec for such a recovery, but be advised: you won’t be able to do it before you eradicate the ransomware itself with an antivirus program.
Also, you can contact the following governmental fraud and scam sites to report this attack:
- In the United States: On Guard Online;
- In Canada: Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre;
- In the United Kingdom: Action Fraud;
- In Australia: SCAMwatch;
- In New Zealand: Consumer Affairs Scams;
- In France: Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information;
- In Germany: Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik;
- In Ireland: An Garda Síochána;
To report the attack, you can contact local executive boards. For instance, if you live in USA, you can have a talk with FBI Local field office, IC3 or Secret Service.

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