BLUEKEY Virus (.BLUEKEY Files) — How to Remove?

The Bluekey virus belongs to the ransomware type of malicious agent. Malware of this type encrypts all the data on your computer (photos, documents, excel tables, audio files, videos, etc) and adds its own extension to every file, leaving the DECRYPTION_INSTRUCTIONS.txt files in every directory containing encrypted files.

Bluekey virus: what is known so far?

☝️ A strictly accurate denomination for the Bluekey is “a ransomware-type malicious agent”.

Bluekey will add its extra .blueKey extension to every file’s title. For instance, a file named “photo.jpg” will be changed to “photo.jpg.blueKey”. Likewise, the Excel table named “table.xlsx” will be renamed to “table.xlsx.blueKey”, and so forth.

In each directory containing the encoded files, a DECRYPTION_INSTRUCTIONS.txt text document will appear. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other remarks. The ransom note usually contains instructions on how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. That is it.

Bluekey abstract:

In the screenshot below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Bluekey looks like. Each filename has the “.blueKey” extension appended to it.

How did my machine catch Bluekey ransomware?

There is a huge number of possible ways of ransomware injection.

Nowadays, there are three most popular ways for malefactors to have ransomware acting in your system. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer-to-peer networks.

If you open your inbox and see emails that look just like notifications from utility services companies, delivery agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is unknown to you, beware of opening those emails. They are very likely to have a viral item attached to them. So it is even riskier to download any attachments that come with letters like these.

As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols like torrents or eMule, the threat is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Internet. You can never guess what you download until you get it. So you’d better be using trustworthy websites. Also, it is reasonable to scan the folder containing the downloaded objects with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is complete.

How to remove the Bluekey virus?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your data, the Bluekey virus will most likely deploy the Azorult Spyware on your PC to seize your credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware² can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Sometimes tamperers would decode few of your files so you know that they do have the decryption tool. As Bluekey virus is a relatively recent ransomware, safety measures designers have not yet found a way to reverse its work. Nevertheless, the anti-ransomware instruments are frequently updated, so the solution may soon arrive.

Of course, if the malefactors succeed in encoding victim’s critical data, the desperate person will most likely comply with their demands. Nevertheless, paying to racketeers gives no guarantee that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still risky. After receiving the money, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports of racketeers just vanishing after getting the ransom without even bothering to reply.

The best solution against ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud storage or at least on an external disk. Surely, that might be not enough. The most crucial thing could be that file you were working on when it all went down. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the system restoration.

There are other ransomware products, besides Bluekey, that work similarly. For instance, Eiur, Hhwq, Hkgt, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Bluekey are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: files become encoded, their extensions altered, ransom notes are created in each directory containing encrypted files.

Some lucky users were able to decode the blocked files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-ransomware developers. Sometimes the racketeers accidentally send the decoding key to the victims in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the user to restore the files. But obviously, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a tamperers’ instrument to pull the money out of their victims.

How to avoid ransomware infection?

Bluekey ransomware doesn’t have a endless power, so as any similar malware.

You can armour your computer from its injection in three easy steps:

• Never open any emails from unknown mailboxes with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are expecting (how can you win in a lottery without even taking part in it?). If the email subject is more or less something you are waiting for, check all elements of the suspicious letter with caution. A fake letter will surely have mistakes.
• Avoid using cracked or unknown programs. Trojans are often distributed as a part of cracked software, possibly under the guise of “patch” which prevents the license check. But untrusted programs are difficult to distinguish from reliable software, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. 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 GridinSoft³

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 “.blueKey” files?Is it possible to open“.blueKey” files?

Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.blueKey” files you will not be able to access them.

🤔 I really need to decrypt those “.blueKey” files ASAP. How can I do that?

If the “.blueKey” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. 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 should I do if the Bluekey ransomware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation key.

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Some of the encrypted files can be found elsewhere.

• If you sent or received your important files through email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You might have shared photographs or videos with your friends or family members. Just ask them to send those images back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Internet, you can try downloading them again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud disks might have all those files as well.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, cellphone, flash memory, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can employ data recovery utilities⁵ to get your lost data back since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, deleting the authentic ones. In the video below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, 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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