BlackRock Virus Ransomware 🔐 (.BLACKROCK File) — Removal Guide

The Blackrock virus falls under the Phobos ransomware family. Malware of such sort encrypts all user’s data on the PC (photos, documents, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and appends its specific extension to every file, creating the info.hta files in each directory containing encrypted files.

What is known about the Blackrockvirus?

☝️ A scientifically accurate description for the Blackrock is “a Phobos family ransomware-type malicious agent”.

The renaming will be done by the following pattern: .blackrock. After the encryption, a file named, for example, “report.docx” will be turned into “report.docx.id[05C1E846-D115].[[email protected]].blackrock”.

In every folder containing the encoded files, a info.hta text document will be found. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note usually contains a description of how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. You can obtain this decoding tool after contacting [email protected], [email protected] via email. That is it.

Blackrock outline:

The info.hta file accompanying the Blackrock malware provides the following discouraging information:

All your files have been encrypted!


All your files have been encrypted due to a security problem with your PC. If you want to restore them, write us to the e-mail [email protected]
Write this ID in the title of your message -
In case of no answer in 24 hours write us to this e-mail:[email protected]
You have to pay for decryption in Bitcoins. The price depends on how fast you write to us. After payment we will send you the tool that will decrypt all your files.


Free decryption as guarantee
Before paying you can send us up to 5 files for free decryption. The total size of files must be less than 4Mb (non archived), and files should not contain valuable information. (databases,backups, large excel sheets, etc.)

 

How to obtain Bitcoins
The easiest way to buy bitcoins is LocalBitcoins site. You have to register, click \'Buy bitcoins\', and select the seller by payment method and price.
hxxps://localbitcoins.com/buy_bitcoins
Also you can find other places to buy Bitcoins and beginners guide here:
hxxp://www.coindesk.com/information/how-can-i-buy-bitcoins/


Attention!
Do not rename encrypted files.
Do not try to decrypt your data using third party software, it may cause permanent data loss.
Decryption of your files with the help of third parties may cause increased price (they add their fee to our) or you can become a victim of a scam.

In the picture below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Blackrock looks like. Each filename has the “.blackrock” extension added to it.

How did my computer get infected with Blackrock ransomware?

There are many possible ways of ransomware injection.

There are currently three most popular ways for criminals to have ransomware acting in your system. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer networks.

If you access your inbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, postal agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose mailer is unknown to you, be wary of opening those letters. They are very likely to have a malicious item enclosed in them. Thus it is even more dangerous to download any attachments that come with emails like these.

Another option for ransom hunters is a Trojan file scheme. A Trojan is a program that infiltrates into your PC disguised as something else. Imagine, you download an installer of some program you want or an update for some software. However, what is unboxed reveals itself a harmful agent that encodes your data. As the update wizard can have any title and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the source of the stuff you’re downloading. The best way is to use the software developers’ official websites.

As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols like torrent trackers or eMule, the threat 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 websites. Also, it is reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is complete.

How do I get rid of the Blackrock virus?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your files, the Blackrock virus will most likely install Vidar Stealer on your computer to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned program can derive your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling cardfile.

Often racketeers would decode few of your files so you know that they do have the decryption program. Since Blackrock virus is a relatively new ransomware, security software designers have not yet found a method to undo its work. Nevertheless, the decryption tools are frequently updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon be available.

Understandably, if the evildoers succeed in encoding victim’s critical data, the hopeless person will probably fulfill their demands. Nevertheless, paying to racketeers gives no guarantee that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still dangerous. After getting the money, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports of hackers just disappearing after getting the ransom without even bothering to reply.

The optimal safety measure against ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud drive or at least on an external drive. Obviously, that might be insufficient. Your most crucial thing could be that one you were working upon when it all started. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also wise to scan your drives with the antivirus program after the OS is rolled back.

There are other ransomware products, besides Blackrock, that work similarly. For instance, Coty, Foza, Coza, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Blackrock are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is the same: documents become inaccessible, their extensions changed, ransom notes are found in each directory containing encoded files.

Some lucky victims were able to decrypt the arrested files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-malware developers. Sometimes the hackers accidentally send the decryption key to the victims in the ransom note. Such an epic fail allows the victim to restore the files. But obviously, one should never expect such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a bandits’ tool to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How сan I avert ransomware infection?

Blackrock ransomware has no endless power, neither does any similar malware.

You can armour your PC from ransomware infiltration taking three easy steps:

• Never open any emails from unknown mailers with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are waiting for (how can you win in a money prize draw without participating in it?). If the email subject is more or less something you are expecting, scrutinize all elements of the suspicious letter with caution. A hoax letter will surely contain mistakes.
• Never use cracked or unknown programs. Trojan viruses are often shared as a part of cracked products, possibly as a “patch” to prevent the license check. But untrusted programs are difficult to distinguish from trustworthy software, because trojans sometimes have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information on this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the optimal solution is not to use such programs at all.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft²

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

🤔 Is it possible to open “.blackrock” files?

Unfortunately, no. You need to decipher the “.blackrock” files first. Then you will be able to open them.

🤔 The encrypted files are very important to me. How can I decrypt them quickly?

It’s good if you have fаr-sightedly saved copies of these important files elsewhere. In case you haven’t, there is still a chance that you do have a Restore Point from some time ago to roll back the whole system to the moment when it had no virus yet, but already had your files. All other solutions require time.

🤔 What should I do if the Blackrock malware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation key.

🤔 What can I do right now?

Many of the blocked files might still be within your reach

• If you sent or received your critical files by email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You might have shared images or videos with your friends or relatives. Just ask them to give those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Web, you can try doing it again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud storage might have all those files too.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, cellphone, external storage, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can use file recovery utilities⁴ to get your lost data back since ransomware blocks the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the video below, you can see how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you can do it only after you remove the virus with an anti-malware 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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