STEEL Virus 🔐 (.STEEL Files) — How to Remove?

The Steel virus falls within the Phobos ransomware family. Ransomware of such sort encrypts all user’s data on the computer (photos, documents, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its specific extension to every file, leaving the info.txt files in every directory which contains the encrypted files.

Steel virus: what is known so far?

☝️ A scientifically correct denomination for the Steel would be “a Phobos family ransomware infection”.

The renaming will be done by this pattern: .STEEL. In the process of encryption, a file named, for instance, “report.docx” will be altered to “report.docx.id[9ECFA84E-3351].[[email protected]].STEEL”.

In each folder containing the encrypted files, a info.txt file will be found. It is a ransom money note. Therein you can find information about 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 tamperers. You can get this decryptor after contacting [email protected] via email. That is it.

Steel overview:

The info.txt file coming in package with the Steel malware states the following:

!!!All of your files are encrypted!!!
To decrypt them send e-mail to this address: [email protected].
If we don\'t answer in 24h, send messge to telegram: @Stop_24

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

How did my machine catch Steel ransomware?

There are plenty of possible ways of ransomware injection.

Nowadays, there are three most popular methods for malefactors to have the Steel virus working in your system. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer-to-peer file transfer.

If you access your inbox and see letters that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, postal agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose addresser is strange to you, beware of opening those letters. They are most likely to have a malware item enclosed in them. Thus it is even riskier to open any attachments that come with letters like these.

As for the peer networks like torrents or eMule, the threat is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Web. You can never know what you download until you get it. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy resources. Also, it is a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded files with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.

How to remove the Steel virus?

It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your data, the Steel virus will most likely install the Azorult Spyware on your computer 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 racketeers would unblock few of your files to prove that they indeed have the decryption program. As Steel virus is a relatively new ransomware, security software developers have not yet found a way to undo its work. However, the decryption tools are frequently updated, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Sure thing, if the hackers do the job of encrypting someone’s critical data, the hopeless person will probably fulfill their demands. Nevertheless, paying a ransom does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your data back. It is still risky. After getting the ransom, the racketeers may deliver a wrong decryption code to the victim. There were reports about ransomware developers just disappearing after getting the ransom without even writing back.

The optimal countermeasure to ransomware is to have aan OS restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud disk or at least on an external disk. Obviously, that might be not enough. Your most important 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 anti-malware utility after the system is rolled back.

There are other ransomware products, besides Steel, that work similarly. For instance, Mzop, Vvoo, Erqw, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Steel are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: files become encrypted, their extensions altered, ransom notes emerge in each directory containing encrypted files.

Some lucky users were able to decrypt the arrested files with the aid of the free tools provided by anti-malware developers. Sometimes the racketeers mistakenly send the decoding code to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an epic fail allows the victim to restore the files. But naturally, one should never rely on such a chance. Make no mistake, ransomware is a bandits’ tool to pull the money out of their victims.

How do I avoid ransomware infiltration?

Steel ransomware doesn’t have a superpower, neither does any similar malware.

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

• Never open any emails from unknown senders with unknown 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, check all elements of the dubious email with caution. A fake letter will surely contain a mistake.
• Do not use cracked or unknown software. Trojan viruses are often distributed as an element of cracked products, most likely as a “patch” to prevent the license check. But untrusted programs are difficult to distinguish from trustworthy software, because trojans may also have the functionality you seek. Try searching for information on this software product on the anti-malware message boards, but the best 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”.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

There’s no way to do it, unless the files “.STEEL” files are decrypted.

🤔 What should I do to make my files accessible as fast as possible?

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. The rest of the methods require patience.

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

🤔 What could help the situation right now?

Many of the encoded files might still be within your reach

• If you exchanged your critical files via email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You might have shared photographs or videos with your friends or relatives. Just ask them to post those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Internet, you can try doing it again.
• Your messengers, social networks pages, and cloud disks might have all those files as well.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old computer, a laptop, mobile, flash memory, etc.

HINT: You can employ data recovery programs⁵ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware blocks the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the tutorial below, you can see how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but be advised: you can do it only after you remove the ransomware itself 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.

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