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

The Steloj virus falls under the ransomware type of malicious agent. Harmful software of this type encrypts all the data on your computer (images, text files, excel tables, audio files, videos, etc) and adds its own extension to every file, leaving the README_WARNING.txt files in every folder with the encrypted files.

What is known about the Steloj virus?

Steloj appends its own .steloj extension to the name of each encoded file. For example, an image named “photo.jpg” will be turned into “photo.jpg.steloj”. In the same manner, the Excel sheet named “table.xlsx” will end up as “table.xlsx.steloj”, and so forth.

In every directory with the encrypted files, a README_WARNING.txt text document will be found. It is a ransom money memo. Therein you can find information about the ways of contacting the racketeers and some other remarks. The ransom note usually contains instructions on how to buy the decryption tool from the tamperers. That is how they do it.

Steloj Overview:

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

How did Steloj ransomware end up on my PC?

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

Nowadays, there are three most popular methods for tamperers to have ransomware working in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan introduction and peer-to-peer networks.

• If you access your mailbox and see emails that look just like notifications from utility services companies, postal agencies like FedEx, Internet providers, and whatnot, but whose addresser is unknown to you, be wary of opening those emails. They are most likely to have a ransomware file attached to them. Therefore, it is even riskier to open any attachments that come with emails like these.
• Another option for ransom hunters is a Trojan horse model. A Trojan is an object that gets into your machine pretending to be something different. For example, you download an installer of some program you want or an update for some service. But what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful program that corrupts your data. Since the installation wizard can have any title and any icon, you have to make sure that you can trust the resource of the stuff you’re downloading. The optimal thing is to use the software companies’ official websites.
• As for the peer-to-peer networks like torrent trackers 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 a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.

How do I get rid of ransomware?

It is crucial to inform you that besides encrypting your data, the Steloj virus will most likely deploy Vidar Stealer on your PC to get access to credentials to different accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned program can extract your credentials from your browser’s auto-filling data.

How do I avoid ransomware infection?

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

You can armour your system from ransomware injection taking several easy steps:

• Ignore any letters from unknown mailers with unknown addresses, or with content that has nothing to do with something you are waiting for (how can you win in a money prize draw without even taking part in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are expecting, scrutinize all elements of the questionable email carefully. A fake letter will surely contain mistakes.
• Avoid using cracked or untrusted programs. Trojan viruses are often distributed as a part of cracked products, most likely under the guise of “patch” preventing the license check. Understandably, untrusted programs are difficult to tell from trustworthy ones, as trojans sometimes have the functionality you seek. Try to find information on this software product on the anti-malware forums, but the best solution is not to use such software.

Frequently Asked Questions

🤔 How can I open “.steloj” files?Can I somehow access “.steloj” files?

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

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

If the “.steloj” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. In case you haven’t, there is still a chance that you do have a Restore Point from some time ago to roll back the whole system to the moment when it had no virus yet, but already had your files. The rest of the methods require patience.

🤔 What to do if the Steloj malware has blocked my computer and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 And what should I do now?

Some of the blocked files can be located elsewhere.

• If you exchanged your important files by email, you could still download them from your online mail server.
• You may have shared images or videos with your friends or family members. Just ask them to send those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially downloaded any of your files from the Web, you can try downloading them again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud disks might have all those files too.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, mobile, external storage, etc.

USEFUL TIP: You can use file recovery utilities¹ to get your lost data back since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, removing the original ones. In the tutorial below, you can learn how to use PhotoRec for such a recovery, but be advised: you won’t be able to do it before you eradicate the ransomware itself with an anti-malware program.

1. Here are Best Data Recovery Software Of 2023.