computer ransom-ware

[PTvor]

What a lot of them do is come out with the patter about how they are calling from Microsoft and your PC is infected with viruses, then attempt to get you to part with a credit card number to pay for the software download to fix it. The software download is of course a trojan . I assume that they mostly get numbers from the phone directory.

As I run Linux, I was in no doubt from the first that these calls were a scam.

I've got to the stage where when I get a phone call from anyone with an Indian accent and a buzz of other phone calls in the background, I mess them about.

 

[Wallace]

I've got to the stage where when I get a phone call from anyone with an Indian accent and a buzz of other phone calls in the background, I mess them about.

I do pretty much the same thing, especially when they wake me up at 10 in the morning. BT Broadband Tech Support get a little annoyed when they eventually phone back about your line fault though.

 

[roofman]

you know the calls are from the east as just before they hang up they say "you have a good night" and its only morning here

 

[knoba]

Similar thing happened to an ex just before xmas. She's a professional photographer. Ransomware encrypted the hard-drive. Laptop shop replaced the drive, they can't unencrypt the original and she's lost the last 3 years work.

One lesson she may have learned, the hard way, is to "make regular back-ups of important data". Another, is not to use; Microsoft Windows.

Keep personal & private data on a usb stick.

Consider moving up to a Mac, or even better, Linux. The last option will also run on the hardware you already have.

It takes me 30 mins to re-install Linux, from scratch, to fully locked-down, program loaded & just how I like it. If you find yourself re-installing Windows a lot - "disk imaging" might be worth looking into...

A lot of the latest randomware is getting smarter by hiding in the mbr. Windows want to introduce a proprietary uefi to help overcome it, but (imo) it will be an ineffective measure and introduce one more complexity (read vulnerability), and up the fleecing, after-sales add-ons like the behemoth anti-virus software market.

As for prevention, what's to say? Windows machines will always be a target. Hackers release viri & trojans, Software companies "try" to come up with a fix (after the fact), but the damage is already done. Between releasing the warez and coding a fix, a lot of people get clobbered. That pattern will never change. It's a bit like Russian roulette and recurring deja-vu. As soon as the software companies close out one vulnerability; 10 new one's appear. Door after horse has bolted? It's a scam.

What are you paying for? A secure operating system? Anti-virus software? There are no guarantees in the software world, but I think some concepts that have relevance here, are; "minimise & manage risk". If you're looking for that from the Microsoft world, I think you have the wrong idea about their business model.

Making their product prone to viruses increases their revenue through "software channel partners" like Norton. Conflict of interest - bad for consumers - plain & simple.

Isn't Anti-virus software like; Mc Afee, Norton, etc just a different form of ransomware...

My entire computer expenditure is spent on faster & better hardware. I don't buy any software, not even anti-virus. All legal & no viruses = no problems. Linux isn't so different, or difficult. Best of all, it's free. The only cost, over the users' lifetime, is a little learning curve. Check out: "installing Linux" on You Tube.

 

[Sean]

Isn't Anti-virus software like; Mc Afee, Norton, etc just a different form of ransomware...

My entire computer expenditure is spent on faster & better hardware. I don't buy any software, not even anti-virus. All legal & no viruses = no problems. Linux isn't so different, or difficult. Best of all, it's free. The only cost, over the users' lifetime, is a little learning curve. Check out: "installing Linux" on You Tube.

Yup my parents while not being too elderly and still on the ball with most things, took their old pc into PCsRus type shed, with Tech guys, for a service where they were told that the windows XP system was "too old" and were sold an all singin all dancing vista system.

it came with with NORTON already installed, to which they gladly gave their credit card details - its taken nearly 2 years to get out of Symantec s automatic billing i spent nearly 2 hours wiping the crap from them off the computer - so totally agree Big shiny office in silicon valley or dingy back office in Moscow they are both criminal.


next time they call me about a computer programme the HD gets wiped and on goes Ubuntu or Mint as im fed up with configuring their computer so they wont do any damage to it and hours later the latest Upgrade patch or whatever M$$ sends out re configures the system for them - was on ie10 and outlook with preview pane enabled last time despite me disabling all that stuff a year ago for one big button in the middle of the screen with "INTERNET" linking to FF

 

[Ed.]

Kapersky have a free? download available that apparently unblocks a windows PC from that sort of thing, it's a 200mb download, I haven't tried it yet but downloaded it just in case something like that happens to someone I know in the future, it might be worth a shot. You burn it to a CD which you then boot off. I think it is called Kapersky Windows Unblocker or something like that.

I have images made of my system which I can restore reasonably quickly from but it is still a pain, You would think that if payment is made by credit card then the FBI should be able to track the recipients. I think there are laws against installing malware/software on someone elses PC without the owners consent and then trying to blackmail them in to paying to unblock it. However If you do give them your credit card details they will no doubt ask for your 3 digit CC authority number as well and then they can use your card to go on a spending spree.

 

[keith19]

Good tip, Ed. The Unlocker can be downloaded from the link below here. It is an ISO file, which means you burn it to a CD before you can use it. There is also a version to put on a USB drive, if you prefer. Full details and downloads from here:
http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208285003

 

[PTvor]

Similar thing happened to an ex just before xmas. She's a professional photographer. Ransomware encrypted the hard-drive. Laptop shop replaced the drive, they can't unencrypt the original and she's lost the last 3 years work.

One lesson she may have learned, the hard way, is to "make regular back-ups of important data". Another, is not to use; Microsoft Windows.

Keep personal & private data on a usb stick.

It's well worth making regular backups to an external hard drive or putting the important stuff on DVDs or USB sticks, because apart from malware, hard drives can fail and you can delete important things by accident. When you think about it, the data on the hard drive is almost always more valuable than the computer itself.

 

[Robotstar5]

It's well worth making regular backups to an external hard drive or putting the important stuff on DVDs or USB sticks, because apart from malware, hard drives can fail and you can delete important things by accident. When you think about it, the data on the hard drive is almost always more valuable than the computer itself.

I'm slowly backing up all our stuff onto a NAS drive with 2 HDD running in parallel so even if one falls over I just replace it and the other drive copies everything over.

 

[Wallace]

Just had a call about my computer and strung the poor guy along for an hour whilst cooking and eating my lunch. It took 3 of them in a huddle trying to work out where the Windows key was on my Dell laptop. The clever one gave me the Ctrl & Esc shortcut!

I have to admire the guy for staying on the phone that long, wish I had recorded it.

 

[mike os]

I'm slowly backing up all our stuff onto a NAS drive with 2 HDD running in parallel so even if one falls over I just replace it and the other drive copies everything over.

well done... backups are far too often overlooked