Posted on 11/09/2015 10:18:51 AM PST by sparklite2
Power Worm infects Microsoft Word and Excel files but the latest poorly written update of it goes after many more types of data files it finds on a victim's machine.
Malware researcher Nathan Scott discovered the variant and uncovered the mistakes its creator made when updating it.
Mr Scott believes the errors arose when the creator tried to simplify the decryption process. They tried to make it use just one decryption key but mangled the process of generating it. As a result, there is no key created for the files it encrypts when it compromises a computer.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
I opt for Comodo Internet Security (Disable the “Sandbox”).
Malwarebytes, Super Antispyware, Glary Utilities, and Norton Utilities. All Free and I never get infected, except for the ever present tracking cookies. No utility program is all encompassing. An arsenal of them is required to get most everything, and even then, I have yet to find one which will delete the ever growing .dat files (index items).
Glary Utilities has the fastest defrag program I have ever used.
A few people have called in here at work to report ransom ware. Their pc’s go in for reimage and they lose all their files.
Virus creation should be a death penalty crime. Slow and painful.
In the digital age creating something like ransomware is comparable to setting a forest fire that destroys many homes.
Hang ‘em!
Why RollBack Rx snapshots cannot be touched by Crypto/ransomware
http://blog.horizondatasys.com/why-rollback-rx-snapshots-cannot-be-touched-by-cryptoransomware/
Thanks. I will take a look at the free version
The consumer version is $69 so may be worth it.
http://www.horizondatasys.com/en/products_and_solutions.aspx?ProductId=40#Features
Privacy mantra supposedly does delete .day files. I used to use another utility for this as well, but can’t remember what it was.
The way I read it, the free version lasts thirty days.
Then, after that, you pay. Then you pay again every year. Folks gotta make a living, but I ain’t cheap.
I believe fileassassin was the utility I used before. I thought glary and ccleaner also did this, but it appears they don’t clear all day files.
hmmm- the pro version at 69$ or whatever is a one time fee- I bought mine years ago and have never been forced to pay again
Horizons runs sales periodically where the program gets reduced to about $30 or so- usually around the holidays
I’m misreading the web site, probably.
where did you read the free is charged every year? I was under impression that the free version was limited in the amount of snapshots, but did most everything the pro version does as far as protection against viruses-
Quick, someone tell Hillary!
I just checked, the free version only allows 7 snapshots- but with careful management, it can be done- I only use manual snapshots- turn off ‘snapshots when starting’ or whatever it’s called, and just do manual snapshots when needed- like after doing windows updates, I’ll do a snapshot, then after a week or so delete the previous snapshot if everything looks ok and the update didn’t break anything-
What I did was replaced my hard-drive- installed windows, updated windows, and did a snapshot right away- then installed software, (things like photoshop, dvd software etc) got them all updated, and did another snapshot- that was years ago- still have those two snapshots incase I ever want to get back to a clean install of windows and basic software- all it would take is rolling the system back- would take about 3-4 minutes or so- and system is restored to a nice clean state- no reformatting- no reinstalling htings etc- (I likely won’t want to do this as I’d lose lots of other things like bookmarks, site login passwords, etc etc etc- but if I had to it’s there to go back to)
Then I just do snapshots whenever I do something like install new software to try- if the software really mucks up computer, I just do a goback- no worries-
I’ll go for several months without doing any snapshots, and then do a rollback to my last snapshot several months ago- this way incase my computer picked up a virus, or some files get corrupted or whatever, it goes back to a known good state- then I’ll update the snapshot to a more current time right after I did the rollback
Sounds kinda complicated, but it’s not really- Basically what I’ve done is kept the computer clean to a known good time by always using the same snapshot when I rollback the system (Immediately after the rollback, I’ll update any necessary stuff like Silverlight, flash or whatever, and immediately do another snapshot before I start using the internet much- so it’s like going back to the previous snapshot, doing a few quick updates, and updating the snapshot to a more recent snapshot
Hard ot explain I guess- but easy to do
it’s a one time fee- and like I said- it’s been the best $70 I spent- also, if you wait till around Christmas, it should go on sale- about $30-40 or so
Makes a lot of sense. I’ll try the home version.
just be aware, you may have to turn off windows restore points- I think the two conflict or something if I remember right
Be sure to turn off automatic snapshots whenever you start the computer too- although if it only allows 7 snapshots- not sure if it’ll automatically delete oldest snapshots to make way for each new snapshot or not- or if it will just do 7 then stop taking snapshots— it seems it would delete olest ones as it would be better it seems to keep taking daily snapshots but who knows- I would just turn of auto snaps and do them manually- that way I control what snapshots I want to take and when
It’s installed. I’m surprised I had to create my own desktop shortcut to kick it off, but everything went without a hitch.
I’ve set the task scheduler to “one time” which should stop any automatic snapshots, also locked the snapshot from being deleted. I’m going to leave windows Restore on for now. Don’t want to disable it if I don’t have to.
Maybe it isn’t necessary to mess with system restore.
This is from an Amazon review ...
Rollback Rx is best classified as an Instant System Restore (ISR) app. It has been described as “Windows System Restore on Steroids” as it disables and replaces Windows System Restore ..
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