JackClark

I don't normally do alerts for these things anymore, but friends of mine have been going a bit ballistic telling everyone to beware, so here we are.

This one is particularly nasty because it works so well, once you run the trojan it encrypts your files and then asks you to pay to get the files back. This is an old trick, I remember a DOS virus trying the same trick in the early 90's and I'm sure there have been tons of others, but, they weren't very good, this one is.

Right now I believe it's most commonly delivered as an email attachment, but expect to see the same code arriving via many different methods.

TLDR: Make a back up of your important files and keep it offline

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10...ker_ransmware/

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Watched the video, clever stuff ..

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Hdd cloned twice just in case

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

... or alternatively, don't be such a sp@cker as to open attachments in emails from people you don't know.

JackClark

That's just the first hurdle. What about the people you do know? It won't be long until visiting a slightly dodgy web site will see you trapped. They claim to release your data for $300, I bet that's a scam too. There's a great deal of money to be made here, batten down the hatches.

Backing up applies to Mac users too, fortunately Apple made that easy.

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

I back mine up with windows easy transfer wizard to a dvd, works as well as anything and gives me a sound basis for a reinstall if windows gets a bit clunky

JackClark

What's a DVD?

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

A cheap low capacity blu-ray

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

Pay for to see your drive? Just format the drive and its gone, will take a couples of hours to put the PC back to its normal state and your done

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Or restore a backedup image in 30 mins with all your apps n settings intact.

Anyway this thread is stupid scare mongering by a mong.

JackClark

Really useful info Cockforger, so pleased you appeared on another of my threads.

90% of home Windows users won't have a back up, but that's OK, just format the lot, problem gone. If one person reads this and does a back up, even to a DVD whatever that is then I've achieved.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

My pleasure as always

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

Well you are an Apple fan so I expect you to know $hit all about technology, even though you claim it is your work...

Cryptolocker is a non-issue with a decent virus scanner, if you don't have a decent virus scanner then you are a muppet. Bioforger is right it is stupid scaremongering for anyone who has an ounce of intelligence and has a virus scanner installed.

JackClark

I probably do more work on Windows machines than you could comprehend.

"Cryptolocker is a non-issue with a decent virus scanner" Show me this wonderful technology that can detect issues before they happen, many have tried and all have failed, any decent virus author runs his product through every antivirus product before launching it. You're a **** if you think you don't need to back up because you run antivirus.

Well, go ahead, take the advice of these ***** over an "Apple Fan" don't bother backing up and don't worry about malicious software, you have antivirus, it detects all known and future threats, McAfee told me so.

Graz

Don't all the companies selling anti-virus software write the viruses in the first place though? Keeps them in business after all

JackClark

Not true. We did write viruses, sometimes had to, but these were instantly added to the detection list and shared with other antivirus companies, as is standard practice, even though they would never leave the lab.

Graz

I was joking but it seems like there might have been some truth in it after all

Ash170990

iTrader: (1)

Its even more simple than that.... It usually comes from DHL or parcel force etc, and the attachement is a .exe file lol

We had a customer phone up saying theyd opened the attachement, was nasty stuff.... it came from "amazon" saying her order had been canceled... She even admitted she ahdnt ordered anything lol

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

He never said he doesn't backup, what he is saying is spot on, really you just need to use common sense to stay safe from malware and viruses and that includes saving attachments from mates and especially family.

As for the detection what you say is true but that's what AV definition updates are for, which usually patch new virii pretty much as soon as they are announced. And if not on the same day pretty much the following day/week. MS patched Crypto in early September and some other variants of it later. So Security Essentials is ok if you use that. You need definition 1.157.1563.0 or above to be "safe".

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

Dhl failed delivery one is going around with a link to a file but my mcafee removed the Trojan in that link.