SELENA Virus (.selena Files of Ransomware) — How to remove?

Safety specialist Tomas Meskauskas was the one who originally recognized the Selena virus, which belongs under the ransomware type of malicious agent. Malware of such sort encrypts all the data on your computer (images, text files, excel tables, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, leaving the selena.txt text files in every folder containing encrypted files.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

When we talk about the intrusion of unfamiliar programs into your computer’s work, the proverb “Forewarned is forearmed” describes the situation as accurately as possible. Gridinsoft Anti-Malware is exactly the tool that is always useful to have in your armory: fast, efficient, up-to-date. It is appropriate to use it as an emergency help at the slightest suspicion of infection.

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What is Selena virus?

☝️ A scientifically correct description for the Selena is “a ransomware-type infection”.

The scheme of renaming is the following: selena. In the course of encryption, a file named, for instance, “report.docx” will be altered to “report.docx.id[q2TQAj3U].[Selena@onionmail.org].1.jpg.selena”.

In every folder that contains the encoded files, a selena.txt text document will be created. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other information. The ransom note usually contains instructions on how to purchase the decryption tool from the Selena developers. You can obtain this decryptor after contacting Selena@onionmail.org, Selena@cyberfear.com through email. That is how they do it.

Selena outline:

The selena.txt document accompanying the Selena ransomware states the following:

::: Greetings :::

 

Your important data, including financial/development, accounting, strategies, and other vital documents and databases, have been downloaded and will be leaked soon if not paid.


==================================


Little FAQ:
.1.
Q: What's Happened?
A: Your files have been encrypted and now have the "Selena" extension. The file structure has been changed to unreadable format, but you can recover them all with our tool.

.2.
Q: How to recover files?
A: If you wish to decrypt your files, you will need to pay in bitcoins.


.3.
Q: What about guarantees?
A: It's just a business. We absolutely do not care about you and your deals, except getting benefits. Nobody will cooperate with us if we do not do our work and liabilities. It's not in our interests.
To check the ability to return files, you can send us two files (under 5MB) of any kind that do not contain critical information. We will decrypt them and send them back to you. That is our guarantee.


.4.


Q: How to contact us?
A: You can write us to our mailbox: Selena@onionmail.org and Selena@cyberfear.com
write this in the email title: ID:-


.5.
Q: How will the decryption process proceed after payment?
A: After payment, we will send you our decoder program and your ID's unique keys + detailed instructions for use. With this program, you will be able to decrypt all your encrypted files.


.6.
Q: If I don't want to pay bad people like you?
A: If you will not cooperate with our service, it does not matter to us. But you will lose your time and data cause we are the only ones that have the private key. In practice - time is much more valuable than money.


:::BEWARE:::
1.1 DON'T try to change encrypted files by yourself!
If you use any third-party software to restore your data or antivirus solutions, please make a backup of all encrypted files!
Any changes in encrypted files may entail damage to the private key and, as a result, the loss of all data.
.2. Any company/person claiming to decrypt your data without paying us, they're simply lying and will charge you a lot of extra money for that; they all contact us and buy the decryptor from us.
.3. message from Developers: to avoid any possible problems with this email agent, always as for test files, never pay anyone outside of these two emails, only pay to wallet address we send you along with the test file, this will guarantee you recover all your files with no risk
.4.To Facilitate the process of retrieving the files, DO NOT delete the C:/Selena folder (it's a hidden folder)
.5.Some files were encrypted but not renamed; these files will be restored after the decryption procedure is completed.

In the image below, you can see what a folder with files encrypted by the Selena looks like. Each filename has the “.selena” extension added to it.

That is how encrypted “.selena” files look.

How did my machine catch Selena ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware injection.

Nowadays, there are three most exploited ways for evil-doers to have the Selena virus working in your system. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer networks.

If you access your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services companies, postal agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is unknown to you, be wary of opening those emails. They are most likely to have a ransomware file enclosed in them. Therefore, it is even more dangerous to open any attachments that come with letters like these.

Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan file model¹. A Trojan is a program that infiltrates into your computer pretending to be something legal. For example, you download an installer of some program you want or an update for some program. However, what is unpacked reveals itself a harmful agent that compromises your data. As the update file can have any name and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the resource of the stuff you’re downloading. The optimal way is to trust the software companies’ official websites.

As for the peer-to-peer file transfer protocols like torrents or eMule, the danger 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 folder containing the downloaded items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.

How to remove the Selena virus?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your data, the Selena virus will probably deploy the Azorult Spyware on your machine to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). That spyware² can derive your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Sometimes criminals would decode several of your files so you know that they really have the decryption program. As Selena virus is a relatively recent ransomware, anti-malware designers have not yet found a way to reverse its work. However, the anti-ransomware instruments are constantly upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon be available.

Understandably, if the tamperers do the job of encoding victim’s essential files, the hopeless person will most likely fulfill their demands. Despite that, paying to criminals gives no guarantee that you’re getting your files back. It is still dangerous. After receiving the ransom, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports of malefactors just disappearing after getting the money without even bothering to reply.

The optimal countermeasure to ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your critical files in the cloud disk or at least on an external drive. Surely, that might be not enough. The most crucial thing could be that file you were working on when it all started. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the OS restoration.

There are other ransomware products, besides Selena, that work similarly. For instance, Jhdd, Tuid, Ghas, and some others. The two main differences between them and the Selena are the ransom amount and the method of encryption. The rest is the same: documents become encrypted, their extensions altered, ransom notes appear in each folder containing encrypted files.

Some lucky people were able to decode the arrested files with the aid of the free tools provided by anti-ransomware developers. Sometimes the racketeers accidentally send the decoding code to the wronged in the ransom note. Such an epic fail allows the user to restore the files. But obviously, one should never rely on such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a bandits’ instrument to lay their hands on the money of their victims.

How to avert ransomware infiltration?

Selena ransomware doesn’t have a superpower, so as any similar malware.

You can armour yourself from its attack taking several easy steps:

• Never open any emails from unknown mailboxes with strange addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are waiting for (can you win in a lottery without even taking part in it?). If the email subject is more or less something you are expecting, check all elements of the dubious letter with caution. A hoax email will always have mistakes.
• Do not use cracked or unknown software. Trojan viruses are often spreaded as an element of cracked products, most likely under the guise of “patch” which prevents the license check. Understandably, untrusted programs are very hard to tell from reliable ones, because trojans may also have the functionality you seek. You can try to find information on this program on the anti-malware message boards, but the optimal solution is not to use such programs at all.
• And to be sure about the safety of the objects you downloaded, scan them with GridinSoft Anti-Malware. This software will be a powerful shield for your personal computer.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft³

There is no better way to recognize, remove and prevent ransomware than to use an anti-malware software from GridinSoft⁴.

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 system.

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 Selena 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

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

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

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

Hopefully, you have made a copy of those important files. If not, there is still a function of System Restore but it needs a Restore Point to be previously saved. The rest of the methods require patience.

🤔 Will GridinSoft Anti-Malware remove all the encrypted files alongside the Selena virus?

Of course not. Your encrypted files are no threat to your PC.

GridinSoft Anti-Malware only deals with active viruses. The malware that has attacked your system is must be still active and launching checks periodically to arrest any new files you might create on your computer after the initial attack. As it has already been said, the Selena ransomware does not come alone. It installs backdoors and keyloggers that can steal your account credentials and provide hackers with easy access to your PC in the future.

🤔 What to do if the Selena ransomware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation key.

If that happened, you need to have a flash memory drive with a previously installed Trojan Killer. Use Safe Mode to do the cleaning. You see, the ransomware runs automatically as the system boots and encrypts any new files created or imported into your system. To stop this function – use Safe Mode, which allows only the vital applications to run upon system boot. Consider reading our manual on booting 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 through 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 give those images back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Internet, you can try to do it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud storage might have all those files as well.
• Maybe you still have the needed files on your old PC, a portable device, cellphone, memory stick, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can use data recovery programs⁵ to get your lost data back since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the tutorial below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but remember: you won’t be able to do it before you kill the ransomware itself with an antivirus 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.

How to Remove SELENA Ransomware & Recover PC

Name: SELENA Virus

Description: SELENA Virus is a ransomware-type infections. This virus encrypts important personal files (video, photos, documents). The encrypted files can be tracked by a specific .selena extension. So, you can't use them at all.

Operating System: Windows

Application Category: Virus

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