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Welcome to our Merry_I_Love_You_Bruce Virus Ransomware removal guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC.
Welcome to our article about a recently released Ransomware virus called Merry_I_Love_You_Bruce. Ransomware viruses are currently some of the nastiest online threats that ravage the internet. Once they infect someone’s computer, most of them use a complex encryption to lock all personal data and later demand a ransom in exchange for the encryption key. The information that will be provided to you here will help you get a better grasp of how this particular type of malware functions, what it’s typical symptoms are and what needs to be done in order to protect your PC against it. If your computer has already fallen prey to the noxious virus, we will try to help you with our Merry_I_Love_You_Bruce Virus removal guide that can be found at the bottom of this article.
Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee hundred percent success of the guide due to the fact that viruses of this type are being constantly improved and made more difficult to deal with. So far, there hasn’t been developed a universal method of handling Ransomware threats. That is also why it is so important that you have a good understanding of how you can keep your machine protected from this noxious form of malware.
How do the files get locked?
As was already said, the majority of Ransomware viruses use the method of encryption to render the user’s data inaccessible. This detail is important, because it is the main reason why most of the time, malware of this type remains undetected by antivirus programs. If you are familiar with what encryption is usually used for, then you probably already know that this is actually a non-malicious process that is commonly used for data protection. Due to the fact that encryption is not inherently harmful, it rarely gets detected as a potential threat by most security programs. The problem is that when Merry_I_Love_You_Bruce Virus uses it, it targets your personal files and once they got encrypted, you are unable to access them because you don’t possess the key for the encryption. After the Ransomware has finished its job, it informs its victim that if they are to restore things back to normal, the will have to make a ransom payment by following specific instructions provided by the virus.
Are there any symptoms
No matter how hard hackers try to make their viruses invisible, there’s almost always something to give away the presence of the malware. In the the case of Merry_I_Love_You_Bruce, that would be increased usage of CPU time and virtual memory as well as free hard drive space. The reason behind these symptoms comes from the encryption process itself, which is why you should have a good understanding of it. When a file is about to be encrypted, it first gets copied. The new copy is the one that has actually been locked/protected by the encryption. After this is done, the original piece of data is deleted so that only the encrypted copy remains. The reason this is important is because the more data you have stored on your PC, the more time this process would take and the more storage space it would require for the encrypted copies. This can give you a window of opportunity to spot the infection before it’s finished and prevent it from being completed. Therefore, if you notice any of the aforementioned symptoms, be quick to shut down your machine and take it to a professional – you might just be able to save at least a portion of your files.
Options?
Though technically possible, it could be quite difficult to detect a Ransomware infection and if you fail to do that in time, your files would certainly get encrypted by the malware. If this has happened to you, you’re certainly wondering what possible courses of action you have in order to resolve the problem. We regret to inform you that there are not many options to chose from. You can, of course, go for the ransom, but we ought to tell you that this is a very bad idea. There’s nothing to say that you won’t be simply throwing away your money. Remember, you’re dealing with a criminal – even if you make the money transfer, you might still not receive the decryption key. The option that we would advise you to choose is to try using our guide in order to handle the Ransomware problem. Even if it’s not guaranteed that it would work in all cases, it is still a safer alternative to paying the ransom and won’t cost you anything.
Final words
This last paragraph of our article about Merry_I_Love_You_Bruce will be devoted to providing you with valuable rules and tips that will help you boost the security level of your PC, so that no more Ransomware viruses make it inside your system.
- Disallow automatic download of files from the internet on your browser. Make sure that you are notified and asked for permission every time a file is to be downloaded on your PC.
- Make sure that your antivirus and OS are getting updated on a regular basis. That way, backdoor viruses that are commonly used for infecting computers with Ransomware will have harder time getting onto your PC. Also, you might consider getting a paid professional security program. Some developers are trying to introduce certain anti-ransomware features into their products.
- Always have a backup of all important data. You might even use several different backup methods at once. This is a very effective precaution against Ransomware viruses.
- Never connect other devices to your PC if you think that a Ransomware might have infected the computer!
- Make sure to stay safe when online. Avoid potentially harmful websites, do not click on any sketchy ads and never open any form of spam messages/email letters, etc.
Merry_I_Love_You_Bruce Virus Ransomware Removal
Here is what you need to do in order to remove a Ransomware virus from you computer.
I – Reveal Hidden files and folders and utilize the task manager
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- Use the Folder Options in order to reveal the hidden files and folders on your PC. If you do not know how to do that, follow this link.
- Open the Start Menu and in the search field type Task Manager.
- Open the first result and in the Processes tab, carefully look through the list of Processes.
- If you notice with the virus name or any other suspicious-looking or that seems to consume large amounts of memory, right-click on it and open its file location. Delete everything in there.
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- Make sure that the hidden files and folders on your PC are visible, else you might not be able to see everything.
- Go back to the Task Manager and end the shady process.
II – Boot to Safe Mode
- Boot your PC into Safe Mode. If you do not know how to do it, use this guide/linked/.
III – Identify the threat
- Go to the ID Ransomware website. Here is a direct link.
- Follow there in order to identify the specific virus you are dealing with.
IV – Decrypt your files
- Once you have identified the virus that has encrypted your files, you must acquire the respective tool to unlock your data.
- Open your browser and search for how to decrypt ransomware, look for the name of the one that has infected your system.
- With any luck, you’d be able to find a decryptor tool for your ransomware. If that doesn’t happen try Step V as a last ditch effort to save your files.
V – Use Recuva to restore files deleted by the virus
- Download the Recuva tool. This will help you restore your original files so that you won’t need to actually decrypt the locked ones.
- Once you’ve downloaded the program, open it and select Next.
- Now choose the type of files you are seeking to restore and continue to the next page.
- When asked where your files were, before they got deleted, either use the option In a specific location and provide that location or choose the opt for the I am not sure alternative – this will make the program look everywhere on your PC.
- Click on Next and for best results, enable the Deep Scan option (note that this might take some time).
- Wait for the search to finish and then select which of the listed files you want to restore.
- Keep in mind it is possible that not all files might be fully recovered. You can check in what condition the files are from the State column in the list of deleted files.
