I know I talk about this a lot but it should really be on the back of people’s minds at least. There’s a growing threat since the end of last year which locks your personal files, folders, and other kinds of data on your computer. I’m talking about none other than Cryptolocker and other forms of ransomware. What these programs do is use a more secure form of encryption in which a public key and a private key is needed to “unlock” the data that was encrypted. This is a very high encryption and as far as I know there hasn’t been anyways to bypass this and I don’t recommend the average user to try or it may lead to scams and make this matter even worse, but there have been several reports of people who pay to have their stuff unencrypted by the same people who made the ransomware in the first place. This works but it is very expensive and I for one don’t recommend even doing that, so since you read this I’m going to give you a big recommendation.
Backup your files and folders to an external hard drive this is the surest way of not having a problem getting your stuff back, and while i’s true it’s not really “getting your stuff back”, you do have a copy of it somewhere else. CAUTION AHEAD: Most people would leave this drive in their computer where ransomware will have full access to it. DO NOT DO THIS! It will lead to having your backup encrypted as well and you don’t want that.
Before you get paranoid and say “My computer is at risk I must backup as soon as possible!” This ransonware is only found on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 not MacOSX or any other operating systems, including operating systems that use Linux. If you can’t afford an external hard drive (I only say use those because they have higher capacity for storage than a CD or a DVD and even a flash drive), you can protect yourself if you are careful online. It gets tricky to avoid but keep a suspicious eye out for emails from banks, eBay, Amazon, Microsoft, and other high profile companies as the threat has become sophisticated enough to look legitimate so if they have any attachments don’t download them and simply disregard the email. If they don’t have a attachment chances are you’re safe for the time being. At the time of this writing this was the main cause of infections jumping from 7,000 to 15,000 in a very short time period.
If your computer does get infected by any kind of ransomware ther is very little any technician can do besides saying it’s pretty impossible to get through and that the entire operating system has to be re-installed. So from technician to you please either backup or be very careful when checking emails. For Southeast Texans, there has been at least 2 confirmed cases of Cryptolocker found. So be safe and happy browsing.
Computer Tech Team 