Works pretty well ;^)
Posted on 12/25/2013 6:51:56 PM PST by Nachum
A virulent form of ransomware has now infected about quarter of a million Windows computers, according to a report by security researchers. Cryptolocker scrambles users´ data and then demands a fee to unencrypt it alongside a countdown clock. Dell Secureworks said that the US and UK had been worst affected. It added that the cyber-criminals responsible were now targeting home internet users after initially focusing on professionals. The firm has provided a list of net domains that it suspects have been used to spread the code, but warned that more are being generated every day. Ransomware has existed since at least 1989,
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Might not be a bad idea to buy a 2nd computer solely to store, watch and view your downloaded videos and photos, and other content of the sort. In other words, one not even hooked up to the internet. Because I don’t know what I’d do if my humongous collection of stuff was comprised like this.
compromised
That’s a great idea! Can the kids pick them up at school? LOL.
Hunt them down and run em through a wood chipped...
LOL!
Os2 has a myriad of vulnerabolities. If I can get you to click on a lin ok I can own your mac.
Forgot about that... they hand them out for free now, don’t they?
would save a bit of $$ (^.^)
The initial intrusion is usually through email.
I’ve gotten several very suspicious emails lately. Most recently, I got an email confirming an airline reservation that I never made, but it had a .zip attachment, something a real airline would never do.
We’re a security company and seem to be a target. We get lots of those and almost constant attempts to scan our network.
A customer had several people get the cryptolocker virus. The initial infection was through email. It went to the compliance officer, who thought it was suspicious so she didnt open and called the risk manager, who agreed. So they called the head of IT who opened the dang email attachment.
Fortunately it didn’t get into their network shares.
Oops! /facepalm
Cyber-criminals all need a 9mm to the back of the head.
I went to see “War Games’ when the movie first came out. I was the ONLY person in the theater who cheered when the FBI hustled that little piece of crap into a van and whisked him away.
QUOTE:
” Everybody gets excited about the big guns. Me, I like the point two-two.
Goes in the skull, bounces around. Turns the brain to soup.”
Great thread!
I will bookmark it in my favorites for reference later when my computer gets locked down,
Thanks so much for the tip mate, but really the userbase for ‘nix computers is hardly miniscule.
The Atari 2600, perhaps. *grin*
Or even smaller, Macs! (gasp!)
Smaller: FreeBSD
bflr
Well, that’s discouraging. My main computer is a Dell Optiplex 755. I have MSE and have once been hit with the FBI ransomware. I went ahead and did a reformat/reinstall.
BTW don't you think that Dell might contact new users of their equipment - for example ME - and let us know they are seeing some cyper problems?
“The initial intrusion is usually through email.”
Again, these computers had no access whatsoever to e-mail, and they had no connectivity to any computer that did handle e-mail. E-mail was handled on other clients, and they were unaffected.
Circumstantial evidence stronly suggests the rootkits were brought in by other malware through adservers triggered during visits to Websites for cdertain MSM Websites and Youtube music. I’m can’t be sure, but two of the FBI Ransomware attacks seem to have presented themselves immediately after using the Youtube link to play Alice’s Restaurant during Thanksgiving. When I can afford the time and resources, I may test that theory using an easily reconfigurable system.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.