The message in _readme.txt ransom note suggests that all files on victim’s computer have been encrypted with “strongest algorithms” and that a private decryption key is required to decrypt .bbbe files. The note suggests that the only way to get it is to pay a ransom, or, in the cybercriminals’ wording, purchase the key and decryption software from them. They recommend contacting them via two provided emails: support@sysmail.ch and helpsupportmanager@airmail.cc. The note suggests that the victim can get a 50% discount if one writes to the attackers within 72 hours – this settles the decryption price at $490. If delayed any longer, the criminals will ask to pay $980. In both situations, the attackers only accept the payment via Bitcoin to prevent FBI or other law enforcement institutions from finding them. The note also recommends attaching one encrypted file to the email for test decryption. The primary aim of this ransomware is to extort the computer user after taking one’s files hostage; however, we’d like to advise you to follow official FBI recommendations regarding ransom payments. In short, you should NOT PAY THE RANSOM. First of all, it never guarantees complete or partial data recovery, secondly, by paying, you would support the cybercriminals and their further operations. Collecting money from ransomware victims only allows them to employ more people and distribute this kind of malware even more quickly. Finally, we’d like to warn you that STOP/DJVU ransomware virus variants typically arrive alongside VIDAR Trojan. In previous attacks, the virus used to distribute AZORULT malware. Both of these computer threats are well-known information stealers capable of grabbing your login credentials, browser-saved passwords, cryptocurrency wallets, browsing history, cookies and other data and sending them to cybercriminals. With their hands on such private information, they can continue to blackmail you. If you have fallen victim to this file-encrypting malware attack, we recommend you to remove BBBE ransomware virus without a delay. To prevent the malware from blocking your attempts to delete it, boot your computer in Safe Mode with Networking as explained in the guide provided below. If you’re unsure which antivirus to use, we highly recommend INTEGO Antivirus. In addition, we recommend downloading this tool – RESTORO and scanning your computer system. This tool can repair virus damage on Windows OS files without the need to reinstall the operating system.

Ransomware Summary

REPAIR VIRUS DAMAGE

Ransomware distribution explained

You can get infected with ransomware-type virus if you tend to look for pirated software versions online, open email attachments without inspecting them first, or tend to download software updates from suspicious pop-up ads online. These are the most common ways of ransomware distribution, which we will explain in detail below. The majority of STOP/DJVU variants like BBBE virus travel in a form of deceptive pirated software versions. These can be downloaded via rogue websites online offering RAR archives or via torrents. You should stay away from such software versions because not only you can get fined for copyright infringement, but also end up with your computer severely compromised. Victims of the discussed ransomware strain have reported getting infected after attempts to install the following software illegally:

Opera browser;Fifa 20;Tenorshare 4ukey;League of Legends;Adobe Photoshop;Corel Draw;Cubase;Various AV software;Adobe Illustrator;AutoCad;Internet Download Manager;VMware Workstation;KMSPico (illegal Windows activation tool) and others.

Please remember that the only way to get legitimate software versions is to look for it on official software developer’s website or confirmed partner’s site that usually leads to a confirmed download link belonging to the developer’s website. Ransomware and various other malware also travels alongside deceptive emails. The criminals can easily craft up deceptive documents with attached scripts that are meant to download and run the payload on your computer. Therefore, avoid opening unexpected email attachments even if they come called as invoices, parcel tracking details, order summaries, waybills and similar. It is highly likely that such document is hazardous, especially if you can spot other red flags in the email, for example, unfamiliar greeting line, spoofed email address, sense of urgency to open attached files or links or simply typo errors. Ransomware-type threats can also hide in fake software update tools. These may be suggested via aggressive pop-up ads while browsing on rogue online websites. To avoid getting infected, avoid annoying advertisements and software recommended on them. As always, you can check for legitimate software updates on official developer’s website or you can update your programs via their settings. Victims of STOP/DJVU ransomware should also be careful because there are a lot of rogue websites offering decryption tools that simply hide another malware in them. To illustrate, operators of ZORAB ransomware used to distribute their malware via fake STOP/DJVU decryption tools. You can find all options for recovering your files (or repairing some of them) in this tutorial on our website.

More technical information about this file-encrypting threat

BBBE ransomware virus tends to launch in a form of a executable named with 4 random characters, for example, 5B7H.exe, 17N6.exe or similar. The main executable also downloads several build.exe, build2.exe or build3.exe helper processes. In certain situations, the ransomware also launches a dummy Windows update prompt (winupdate.exe process). It seeks to deceive the victim and justify the computer slowdown by claiming the system is downloading and installing essential updates. In the meantime, the ransomware begins collecting details about the infected computer and preparing for the actual data encryption. One of the first things this threat does is figuring our the computer’s geolocation. For this, the ransomware reaches out to https[:]//api.2ip.ua/geo.json and saves the response into geo.json file. It contains computer’s geolocation data: timezone, city, country name and code, zip code, longitude, latitude and other details. You can see an example of how this file may appear in the screenshot below. The virus then compares extracted geolocation data to its exception list. It tends to terminate all of its processes in case one of the following countries are detected: Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Syria, Kazachstan, Kyrgyzstan, or Russia. In other words, this ransomware doesn’t encrypt files on computers from Commonwealth of independent States (CIS). There’s no official explanation why, but it can be that the ransomware operators might be from one of the listed countries. The virus also collects some details about the computer, its hardware specifics, installed software and active processes into information.txt file. You can see a screenshot of it below. The ransomware also requests a unique encryption key from its Command&Control server. This type of encryption is usually referred to as “online encryption.” In case the virus fails to establish a connection and retrieve this key from the C&C server, it uses a hardcoded key instead. This key is associated with something known as the “offline encryption” mode. In short, victims affected by offline encryption type have a chance of recovering their files in the future. The virus saves the encryption key and victim’s ID into bowsakkdestx.txt file and the ID separately to PersonalID.txt file. You can check whether you were affected by offline encryption by inspecting C:\SystemID\PersonalID.txt contents. If the string located there ends in t1, it means that offline encryption was used. See a screenshot of described text files down below. The ransomware then encrypts all data on the compromised computer with the help of Salsa20 + RSA-2048 encryption. Encrypted files will be marked with .bbbe extension as shown in the screenshot below. The malware also equally drops a copy of _readme.txt note in every infected folder. See contents of it below. Ransomware-type viruses usually remove Volume Shadow Copies from the computer to prevent the user from accessing previously established System Restore Points. These can be used for partial data recovery; clearly, this is something that the cybercriminals do not want to leave on the computer. The VSS copies are deleted with the following CMD command: vssadmin.exe Delete Shadows /All /Quiet Finally, some STOP/DJVU versions modify Windows HOSTS file to add a list of domains to block on the host. As a result, the computer user cannot access them. In such situations, error DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN appears in web browser. In short, it seems that the attackers want to block access to domains that might provide the computer user with relevant information regarding ransomware incident response.

Remove BBBE Ransomware Virus and Decrypt Your Files

The easiest way to eliminate malware from a computer is by booting it in Safe Mode with Networking and running a robust antivirus from there. It helps to set up the system with limited functions and deactivate malicious components so that the security software could find and erase them. If you do not have an antivirus solution yet, we strongly recommend using INTEGO Antivirus. Our team approves it due to top-notch malware detection rate and robust real-time protection. Additionally, you may want to download RESTORO to identify and repair virus damage on Windows OS files. OUR GEEKS RECOMMEND Our team recommends a two-step rescue plan to remove ransomware and other remaining malware from your computer, plus repair caused virus damage to the system: GeeksAdvice.com editors select recommended products based on their effectiveness. We may earn a commission from affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. Learn more. Get INTEGO ANTIVIRUS for Windows to remove ransomware, Trojans, adware and other spyware and malware variants and protect your PC and network drives 24/7. This VB100-certified security software uses state-of-art technology to provide protection against ransomware, Zero-Day attacks and advanced threats, Intego Web Shield blocks dangerous websites, phishing attacks, malicious downloads and installation of potentially unwanted programs. Use INTEGO Antivirus to remove detected threats from your computer. Read full review here. RESTORO provides a free scan that helps to identify hardware, security and stability issues and presents a comprehensive report which can help you to locate and fix detected issues manually. It is a great PC repair software to use after you remove malware with professional antivirus. The full version of software will fix detected issues and repair virus damage caused to your Windows OS files automatically. RESTORO uses AVIRA scanning engine to detect existing spyware and malware. If any are found, the software will eliminate them. Read full review here.

Method 1. Enter Safe Mode with Networking

Before you try to remove BBBE Ransomware Virus virus, you must start your computer in Safe Mode with Networking. Below, we provide the easiest ways to boot PC in the said mode, but you can find additional ones in this in-depth tutorial on our website – How to Start Windows in Safe Mode. Also, if you prefer a video version of the tutorial, check our guide How to Start Windows in Safe Mode on Youtube. Instructions for Windows XP/Vista/7 users Instructions for Windows 8/8.1/10/11 users Now, you can search for and remove BBBE Ransomware Virus files. It is very hard to identify files and registry keys that belong to the ransomware virus, Besides, malware creators tend to rename and change them repeatedly. Therefore, the easiest way to uninstall such type of a computer virus is to use a reliable security program such as INTEGO Antivirus. For virus damage repair, consider using RESTORO.

Method 2. Use System Restore

In order to use System Restore, you must have a system restore point, created either manually or automatically. Instructions for Windows XP/Vista/7 users Instructions for Windows 8/8.1/10/11 users After restoring the system, we recommend scanning the system with antivirus or anti-malware software. In most cases, there won’t be any malware remains, but it never hurts to double-check. In addition, we highly recommend checking ransomware prevention guidelines provided by our experts in order to protect your PC against similar viruses in the future.

Alternative software recommendations

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Removing spyware and malware is one step towards cybersecurity. To protect yourself against ever-evolving threats, we strongly recommend purchasing a Premium version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, which provides security based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Includes ransomware protection. See pricing options and protect yourself now.

System Mechanic Ultimate Defense If you’re looking for an all-in-one system maintenance suite that has 7 core components providing powerful real-time protection, on-demand malware removal, system optimization, data recovery, password manager, online privacy protection and secure driver wiping technology. Therefore, due to its wide-range of capabilities, System Mechanic Ultimate Defense deserves Geek’s Advice approval. Get it now for 50% off. You may also be interested in its full review.

Disclaimer. This site includes affiliate links. We may earn a small commission by recommending certain products, at no additional cost for you. We only choose quality software and services to recommend.

Decrypt BBBE files

Fix and open large BBBE files easily:

It is reported that STOP/DJVU ransomware versions encrypt only the beginning 150 KB of each file to ensure that the virus manages to affect all files on the system. In some cases, the malicious program might skip some files at all. That said, we recommend testing this method on several big (>1GB) files first.

STOP/DJVU decryption tool usage guide

STOP/DJVU ransomware versions are grouped into old and new variants. BBBE Ransomware Virus is considered the new STOP/DJVU variant, just like BPTO, ISWR, ISZA, BPSM, ZOUU, MBTF, ZNSM (find full list here). This means full data decryption is now possible only if you have been affected by offline encryption key. To decrypt your files, you will have to download Emsisoft Decryptor for STOP DJVU, a tool created and maintained by a genius security researcher Michael Gillespie. Note! Please do not spam the security researcher with questions whether he can recover your files encrypted with online key - it is not possible. In order to test the tool and see if it can decrypt BBBE files, follow the given tutorial.

Meanings of decryptor’s messages

The BBBE decryption tool might display several different messages after failed attempt to restore your files. You might receive one of the following messages: Error: Unable to decrypt file with ID: [example ID] This message typically means that there is no corresponding decryption key in the decryptor’s database. No key for New Variant online ID: [example ID]Notice: this ID appears to be an online ID, decryption is impossible This message informs that your files were encrypted with online key, meaning no one else has the same encryption/decryption key pair, therefore data recovery without paying the criminals is impossible. Result: No key for new variant offline ID: [example ID]This ID appears to be an offline ID. Decryption may be possible in the future. If you were informed that an offline key was used, but files could not be restored, it means that the offline decryption key isn’t available yet. However, receiving this message is extremely good news, meaning that it might be possible to restore your BBBE extension files in the future. It can take a few months until the decryption key gets found and uploaded to the decryptor. We recommend you to follow updates regarding the decryptable DJVU versions here. We strongly recommend backing up your encrypted data and waiting.

Victims of BBBE Ransomware Virus should report the Internet crime incident to the official government fraud and scam website according to their country:

In the United States, go to the On Guard Online website.In Australia, go to the SCAMwatch website.In Germany, go to the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik website.In Ireland, go to the An Garda Síochána website.In New Zealand, go to the Consumer Affairs Scams website.In the United Kingdom, go to the Action Fraud website.In Canada, go to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.In India, go to Indian National Cybercrime Reporting Portal.In France, go to the Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information.

If you can’t find an authority corresponding to your location on this list, we recommend using any search engine to look up “[your country name] report cyber crime”. This should lead you to the right authority website. We also recommend staying away from third-party crime report services that are often paid. It costs nothing to report Internet crime to official authorities. Another recommendation is to contact your country’s or region’s federal police or communications authority.