| Ransom Ware [message #73284] |
Sat, 14 July 2012 16:43  |
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gofar99
Messages: 1903
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona
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Illuminati (5th Degree) |
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Hi Everyone, Just a had a new experience. Two days ago my pc was hijacked by ransom ware. What happens is an intruder encrypts some key files and makes it so it looks like a hard drive failure. Nothing will work except the message they post saying they can fix it and where to send money. No files are actually erased, just everything is encrypted and not accessible. So what happens if you send the money.... my guess is they fix it for a while and then screw you again and oh by the way, now have a link to an account that you sent money from. There are programs to get rid of the infection, but they can't un-encrypt the files.
It had been several years and lots of junk was in the pc so I did a clean rebuild. Fortunately nearly anything I cared about was already off loaded. Very few things were lost in the process. But have you any idea how many updates there are to windows XP Pro? (I use it on this pc to run programs that won't run in win 7 - or at least don't like to run under a virtual disk). There were 169 updates. Fix some and then there were fixes to the fixes. Gads.
BTW the site to "fix" the PC showed up as www.file-recovery-software.com and the money would go to OnPay, INC (US). If you see that site pop up you are screwed.
Good Listening
Bruce
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