Don’t be held to ransom! - Warns Peter Clarke of PC PAL
Beware of a new virus that has appeared recently and has been described as ‘on the rampage’. It is very cleverly hidden, often as a PDF attachment to an email but also in banners on websites declaring that you are their millionth customer etc.
The virus is called CryptoLocker and has been estimated to have targeted one million computers in the past month. It rapidly encrypts your files then asks you to pay $300 in the next 95 hours to have your files restored...... or lose the files forever!
The virus can be removed from your computer but your files (your photos, your documents, your password lists) remain untouchable to you, although the worry is the extortionists could access your personal data.
So what can you do?
- The experts are saying that you have two options to recover your personal information:
- Pay the ransom and keep your fingers crossed that the people who are blackmailing you will honour their word (which has happened)
- Make a regular back up of your data, get rid of the virus if it occurs and restore your files from a backup. Be careful though, the virus will affect any hard drive which is permanently attached to your computer so you need to think carefully of how you perform your back up procedure – perhaps online backup is the answer
- You can minimise the chances of the virus being able to take hold of your computer by adjusting your Windows configuration regarding folders that can run programs
If you have encountered this terrible problem or if you would like to protect yourself against it, give me a call and we can discuss which solution suits you best.
Don’t let these unscrupulous extortionists make you a victim!
