The Ner virus falls within the Sojusz ransomware family. Malware of such sort encrypts all the data on your computer (photos, documents, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and adds its own extension to every file, creating the !!!HOW_TO_DECRYPT!!!.txt files in each directory which contains the encrypted files.
What is Ner virus?
☝️ A scientifically correct denomination for the Ner would be “a Sojusz family ransomware malicious agent”.
The renaming will be executed by this pattern: [victimID].[contact_email].ner. After the encryption, a file entitled, for instance, “report.docx” will be altered to “report.docx.[c5e4c3a8c7].[[email protected]].ner”.
In every folder with the encrypted files, a !!!HOW_TO_DECRYPT!!!.txt file will appear. It is a ransom money note. 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 Ner developers. You can get this decoding tool after contacting [email protected] by email. That is it.
Ner summary:
| Name | Ner Virus |
| Ransomware family1 | Sojusz ransomware |
| Extension | .ner |
| Ransomware note | !!!HOW_TO_DECRYPT!!!.txt |
| Contact | [email protected] |
| Detection | Ransom:Win32/TeslaCryptPacker!MTB, Trojan:Win32/VirLock.RPO!MTB, Ransom:Win32/Gandcrab.RPS!MTB |
| Symptoms | Your files (photos, videos, documents) get a .ner extension and you can’t open them. |
| Fix Tool | See If Your System Has Been Affected by Ner virus |
The !!!HOW_TO_DECRYPT!!!.txt document coming in package with the Ner malware states the following:
All your valiable data has been encrypted! - Hello! Sorry, but we have inform you that your order has been blocked due to the issue of securities. Make sure your data is not blocked. All your valuable files were encrypted with strong encryption algorithms and renamed. Your unique encryption key is stored securely on our server and your data can be decrypted quickly and securely. - We can prove that we can decrypt all of your data. Please just send us 3 small encrypted files which are randomly stored on your server. We will decrypt these files and send them to you as a proof. Please note that files for free test decryption should not contain valuable information. - All of your confidential data was uploaded to our servers. If you will not start a dialogue with us in 72 hourswe will be forced to publish your files in the public domain. Your customers and partners will be informed about the data leak by email or phone. This way, your reputation will be ruined. If you will not react, we will be forced to sell the most important information such as databases to interested parties to generate some profit. - If you want to resolve this situation, please write to ALL of these 2 email addresses: * [email protected] * [email protected] In subject line please write: |your MachineID: - ------------------------------|and LaunchID: - - Important! * We asking to send your message to ALL of our 2 email adresses because for various reasons, your email may not be delivered. * Our message may be recognized as spam, so be sure to check the spam folder. * If we do not respond to you within 24 hours, write to us from another email address. Use Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or any other well-known email service. * Please don\'t waste the time, it will result only additinal damage to your company! * Please do not try to decrypt the files yourself. We will not be able to help you if files will be modified.
In the picture below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Ner looks like. Each filename has the “.ner” extension added to it.
An example of encrypted .ner files.
How did Ner ransomware end up on my PC?
There is a huge number of possible ways of ransomware injection.
There are currently three most exploited ways for evil-doers to have ransomware settled in your system. These are email spam, Trojan injection and peer-to-peer file transfer.
If you open your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose addresser is strange to you, beware of opening those emails. They are most likely to have a harmful item attached to them. Thus it is even more dangerous to download any attachments that come with letters like these.
As for the peer file transfer protocols like torrents 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. So you’d better be using trustworthy resources. Also, it is reasonable to scan the directory containing the downloaded files with the antivirus as soon as the downloading is finished.
How do I get rid of the Ner virus?
It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your data, the Ner virus will most likely deploy the Azorult Spyware on your machine 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.
Sometimes criminals would unblock few of your files so you know that they do have the decryption program. Since Ner virus is a relatively recent ransomware, security software engineers have not yet found a way to undo its work. Nevertheless, the decoding tools are constantly upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.
Sure thing, if the tamperers succeed in encrypting someone’s critical data, the desperate person will most likely fulfill their demands. Despite that, paying to criminals does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your data back. It is still dangerous. After obtaining the money, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports about racketeers just vanishing after getting the ransom without even writing back.
The best countermeasure to ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud disk or at least on an external disk. Obviously, that might be insufficient. Your most crucial thing could be that file you were working on when it all went down. But at least it is something. It is also advisable to scan your PC for viruses with the anti-malware utility after the system restoration.
There are other ransomware products, besides Ner, that work similarly. For instance, Bbyy, Bbzz, Bnrs, and some others. The two basic differences between them and the Ner are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: documents become inaccessible, their extensions changed, ransom notes appear in every folder containing encoded files.
Some fortunate victims were able to decode the arrested files with the help of the free tools provided by anti-malware specialists. Sometimes the hackers mistakenly send the decoding key to the victims in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the victim to restore the files. But of course, one should never expect such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a criminals’ technology to pull the money out of their victims.
How do I avoid ransomware attack?
Ner ransomware has no endless power, so as any similar malware.
You can defend your system from its injection within 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 (can you win in a lottery without participating in it?). If the email subject is more or less something you are waiting for, scrutinize all elements of the suspicious email with caution. A fake letter will always have a mistake.
- Avoid using cracked or unknown programs. Trojans are often distributed as a part of cracked software, most likely under the guise of “patch” which prevents the license check. But dubious programs are very hard to distinguish from trustworthy ones, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you need. Try to find information on this program on the anti-malware forums, but the best solution is not to use such programs at all.
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”.
Frequently Asked Questions
🤔 Are the “.ner” files accessible?
Unfortunately, no. You need to decipher the “.ner” files first. Then you will be able to open them.
🤔 What should I do to make my files accessible as fast as possible?
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. There are other ways to beat ransomware, but they take time.
🤔 What actions should I take if the Ner virus has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation key.
🤔 What can I do right now?
Some of the encrypted data can be found elsewhere.
- If you sent or received your critical files by email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
- You may have shared photographs or videos with your friends or relatives. Simply ask them to give those images back to you.
- If you have initially got any of your files from the Web, you can try to do it again.
- Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud drives might have all those files as well.
- Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a notebook, phone, flash memory, etc.
USEFUL TIP: You can use file recovery programs6 to retrieve your lost information since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, deleting the original ones. In the video below, you can learn how to use PhotoRec for such a restoration, but be advised: you won’t be able to do it before you kill the virus with an anti-malware program.
Also, you can contact the following official 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.
Leave a Comment