Greetings from Omegabiz!Well I thoroughly enjoyed the extra hour of sleep I got Saturday night! The problem is now its early afternoon and i am already feeling the urge to blow off the gym and go take a nap! i am sure the urge will dissipate in time.
This week we had an interesting event take place with not one but 2 of our clients! It is not rare to have a client call and need help with a virus that magically appeared on their computer. But in this case, not only did we get two requests but they both were a nasty little thing called Cyberlocker or Ransomware.
This type of virus is usually acquired from clicking an attachment in an email, but it can be downloaded from less than secure sites as well. What makes this type of virus so mean is that it encrypts all your data then informs you that in order to decrypt your data you will need to send them $300.00 in MoneyPak or Greenbucks. These are typically bought at Walmart and other shopping establishments. Of course, they are typically untraceable so it is a perfect way to get paid and leave no money trail.
Typically, we would recommend not paying for any type of software where they infect you first then get you to sign up or buy a software to remove it. The beauty or the disgusting (whichever side your on) part of this particular virus is there is no way to unencrypt your data so unless you have backed up your data or kept good restore points, you are out of luck getting your data back. Both of our clients did not have recent backups and both had critical data that had to be retrieved.
We recommended paying the ransom (only after researching that these thieves were at least honorable enough to actually do what they say). Both declined at first, then when they came to the realization that they
would lose all their data decided to pay the ransom. I am happy to say that upon receipt of the money, the extortionists actually unencrypted the file and the clients were able to retrieve their data.
The bottom line is this, they were EXTREMELY lucky. First of all, It is very important to back up your data frequently. Second, Have a good Anti-Virus software installed Like ESET. Third, do NOT click on attachments that you do not know who they are from. If you have any questions of for more information regarding this give me a call or check out our website www.omegabiz.com
Until Next Time,
Trent B. Nyffeler · tnyffeler@omegabiz.com
Office (817) 492-4249 x125| Fax (817)
492-4250
No comments:
Post a Comment