The Boy virus belongs to the ransomware type of malicious agent. Harmful software of this type encrypts all the data on your computer (photos, documents, excel sheets, music, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, creating the HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt text files in each directory which contains the encrypted files.
What is Boy virus?
☝️ A strictly accurate designation for the Boy would be “a ransomware-type infection”.
Boy adds its extra .BoY extension to the title of every encoded file. For instance, an image named “photo.jpg” will be changed to “photo.jpg.BoY”. In the same manner, the Excel table named “table.xlsx” will end up as “table.xlsx.BoY”, and so on.
In each folder with the encrypted files, a HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt text file will be found. It is a ransom money note. Therein you can find information on the ways of paying the ransom and some other information. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to buy the decryption tool from the racketeers. That is how they do it.
Boy overview:
| Name | Boy Virus |
| Extension | .BoY |
| Ransomware note | HOW TO DECRYPT FILES.txt |
| Detection | Crytex.Virus.FileInfector.DDS, Win32/Filecoder.OLC, Malware-Cryptor.InstallCore.5 |
| Symptoms | Your files (photos, videos, documents) have a .BoY extension and you can’t open them. |
| Fix Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by Boy virus |
In the screenshot below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Boy looks like. Each filename has the “.BoY” extension appended to it.
That is how encrypted “.BoY” files look.
How did Boy ransomware end up on my PC?
There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware injection.
Nowadays, there are three most exploited methods for tamperers to have ransomware settled in your system. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer networks.
If you access your inbox and see letters that look just like notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose “from” field is unknown to you, beware of opening those letters. They are very likely to have a malware item attached to them. Thus it is even more dangerous to open any attachments that come with letters like these.
Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan virus model1. A Trojan is an object that gets 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 program that encrypts your data. As the update wizard can have any title and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the source of the files you’re downloading. The optimal way is to use the software companies’ official websites.
As for the peer file transfer protocols like BitTorrent or eMule, the threat is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Internet. You can never know what you download until you get it. So you’d better be using trustworthy resources. Also, it is reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded files with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is done.
How to remove the Boy virus?
It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your files, the Boy virus will probably install the Azorult Spyware on your PC to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned program can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling data.
Often criminals would decrypt few of your files so you know that they indeed have the decryption program. As Boy virus is a relatively recent ransomware, safety measures engineers have not yet found a way to undo its work. However, the decryption instruments are constantly upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.
Sure thing, if the criminals succeed in encrypting someone’s essential data, the desperate person will probably comply with their demands. However, paying to racketeers does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still risky. After receiving the ransom, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports of criminals simply vanishing after getting the money without even writing back.
The best safety measure 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. Of course, that might be insufficient. Your most crucial thing could be that one you were working on when it all happened. But at least it is something. It is also advisable to scan your PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the OS is rolled back.
There are other ransomware products, besides Boy, that work similarly. Examples of those are Isal, Bpws, Znto, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Boy are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is almost identical: documents become encrypted, their extensions changed, ransom notes emerge in each folder containing encoded files.
Some lucky people were able to decode the blocked files with the aid of the free software provided by anti-ransomware developers. Sometimes the criminals mistakenly send the decoding key to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the injured part to restore the files. But naturally, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a bandits’ technology to pull the money out of their victims.
How to avert ransomware injection?
Boy ransomware doesn’t have a superpower, neither does any similar malware.
You can defend your computer from ransomware infiltration in several easy steps:
- Ignore 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 even taking part in it?). In case the email subject is more or less something you are waiting for, check all elements of the suspicious email with caution. A hoax email will surely contain mistakes.
- Avoid using cracked or untrusted software. Trojans are often distributed as a part of cracked software, possibly under the guise of “patch” which prevents the license check. Understandably, untrusted programs are difficult to tell from reliable ones, because trojans may also have the functionality you need. You can try searching for information about this program on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal solution is not to use such software.
- And finally, to be sure about the safety of the files you downloaded, use GridinSoft Anti-Malware. This software will be a powerful shield for your personal computer.
Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft2
There is no better way to recognize, remove and prevent ransomware than to use an anti-malware software from GridinSoft3.
Download Removal Tool.
You can download GridinSoft Anti-Malware by clicking the button below:
Run the setup file.
When setup file has finished downloading, double-click on the setup-antimalware-fix.exe file to install GridinSoft Anti-Malware on your PC.
An User Account Control asking you about to allow GridinSoft Anti-Malware to make changes to your device. So, you should click “Yes” to continue with the installation.
Press “Install” button.
Once installed, Anti-Malware will automatically run.
Wait for the Anti-Malware scan to complete.
GridinSoft Anti-Malware will automatically start scanning your system for Boy infections and other malicious programs. This process can take a 20-30 minutes, so I suggest you periodically check on the status of the scan process.
Click on “Clean Now”.
When the scan has finished, you will see the list of infections that GridinSoft Anti-Malware has detected. To remove them click on the “Clean Now” button in right corner.
Frequently Asked Questions
🤔 How can I open “.BoY” files?Can I somehow access “.BoY” files?
Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.BoY” files you will not be able to access them.
🤔 I really need to decrypt those “.BoY” files ASAP. How can I do that?
It’s good if you have fаr-sightedly saved copies of these important files elsewhere. Otherwise, you might try to employ System Restore. The only question is whether you have saved any Restore Points that would be helpful now. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.
🤔 If GridinSoft deletes the Boy malware, will it also delete my files that were encrypted?
Absolutely not! Unlike the ransomware program itself, the encrypted files do not jeopardize your system.
GridinSoft Anti-Malware only deals with actual viruses. The virus that has infiltrated your system is probably still active and it scans your system periodically to encrypt any new files you might create on your PC after the attack. As it has been said above, the Boy ransomware comes with the company. It installs backdoors and keyloggers that can steal your account credentials and provide criminals with easy access to your PC after some time.
🤔 What to do if the Boy malware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation key.
If that happened, you need to prepare a memory stick with a previously installed Trojan Killer. Use Safe Mode to do the cleaning. You see, the ransomware starts automatically as the system boots and encrypts any new files created or brought into your machine. To suppress this process – use Safe Mode, which allows only the essential programs to run upon system start. Consider reading our manual on running Windows in Safe Mode.
🤔 And what should I do now?
Many of the encoded files might still be within your reach
- If you sent or received your important files by email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
- You might have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Simply ask them to send those pictures back to you.
- If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Internet, you can try downloading them again.
- Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud drives might have all those files too.
- It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, phone, external storage, etc.
HINT: You can use data recovery programs4 to get your lost data back since ransomware encodes the copies of your files, removing the original ones. In the video below, you can see how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you remove 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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Brendan SmithHow to Remove BOY Ransomware & Recover PC
Name: BOY Virus
Description: BOY Virus is a ransomware-type infections. This virus encrypts important personal files (video, photos, documents). The encrypted files can be tracked by a specific .BoY extension. So, you can't use them at all.
Operating System: Windows
Application Category: Virus
User Review
( votes)References
- You can read more on Trojans, their use and types in the Trojan-dedicated section of GridinSoft official website.
- GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review from HowToFix site: https://howtofix.guide/gridinsoft-anti-malware/
- More information about GridinSoft products: https://gridinsoft.com/comparison
- Here’s the list of Best Data Recovery Software Of 2023.
