My business was hit by the “Crypto locker” hit. It came in through email, disguised as a UPS communication like we get every day. It encrypted all my hard drives in the whole business, every drive and wanted a ransom to get it back. I don't do ransoms so I lost thousands of pictures and other files that were not backed up except on network connected remote drives. Fortunately my business data was backed up on unconnected external devices and on paper, we mostly recovered without major loses but it did take a lot of time and effort to do so.
I suspect we were hit by Russians or someone in the Caucuses, whom ever it was I was not alone. I understand that thousands of companies paid the ransom and got their data back. It was only a few hundred dollars or so but I was unwilling to reward the thieves.
I'm hoping their criminal activity destroys them and causes a lot of pain and grief in the process.
What I have not understood is why the US government did nothing to go after these people. It was one of the largest crimes ever perpetuated against business in the US but our government did nothing to either stop it or punish it.
” disguised as a UPS communication “
A few weeks ago, on my home computer, I got a message from DHL, stating that someone had sent me an overnight package, and if I wanted to track it, I had to enter my email address and my DHL password. I have never done any business with DHL, and was not expecting any deliveries from anyone!, so I had never had any sort of password with them, nor ever communicated with them before. Phishing? I deleted it, but am having some odd computer problems now.