Kate, very good point.
With all the alerts either by newspapers or tv news there will always be a few peeps who will open the email purely out of interest! Unfortunately this is very true from some of the work I get in.
So, how do we protect ourselves from this very nasty ransomware/malware?
Firstly we need to understand how the bugger attempts to attack the user.
Email! Some of us here, using email for many years will be aware of the Nigerian 419ers so will be astute and just delete the email without even opening. Most ISPs detect these nowadays and this how the goalposts are being moved. They are getting very criminally serious in getting our money with no shadow of embarrassment or decency.
A point to note is that the people behind these threats are not just hackers they are experienced and malevolent thieves!
There are times when a virus infection comes upon our PC it will be detected by our AV or antimalware systems therefore we should be safe.
However this new bugger is not a virus, it is a trojan!!At present this nasty comes in via email; so be careful when opening any email you don't recognise.
IF YOU BANK ONLINE AND YOU HAVE ALLOWED THEM TO EMAIL ONLY STATEMENTS, THE BODY OF THE TEXT WILL INCLUDE YOUR FULL NAME FOLLOWED BY YOUR POST CODE.
If you have unchecked bank product details then you should get none, simple as that!
A bank will never email you regarding an account breach, they would telephone you on a number you have registered with them.
Should a breach be detected and the bank notices some odd activities and then calls, you still need to be alert!
The caller may ask you, in trust, to call back to verify.....the line is still open to the scammer! A UK problem, whereby you put the phone down but the scammer does not.
He will suggest you dial the number on the back of your debit/credit card, you do this! The scammer is still on an open line and you connect to the man who about to rip your details, say no more..
And the scams expand into new ones.
What we have now, in the new emails skimming the net is CryptoLocker, a very nasty piece of ransomware.
Again, this is received by email, the header could be for instance; this is your
Monthly StatementHowever you now invoke the trojan that will CryptoLock your files and this is done in a very short time although the countdown clock may give you up to 72 hrs to 'buy' the key to unlock your files.
Yeh, with a beany hat on, we are gonna 'pay'?
Not likely, the money you pay is gone, so are your files.
A system restore will fail even in safe mode, basically your files are junk and unrecoverable, simple as that...gone, junk, unreadable and unrecoverable.
The key ensures you will NOT get your files back, neither will you get a refund!! lol
A reinstall of you OS will not bring back the encrypted files, they are gone forever.
Anyway this short reply to Kate has become a bee in my bonnet so I am reiterating much we have said and recommended in the past;
Back up, for bloody sure!
Any PC user, laptop user should have a usb external drive / thumbdrive; it essential to backup/copy
everything given pics, docs etc. This should be done often and the drive disconnected when done.
Please read a very well written article here;
grahamcluley.com/2013/11/cryptolocker-protect/