A scary new malware is on the rise here's how to protect yourself

A scary malware is on the rise and it could end up costing you a fortune.

Ransomware, which is a type of malware that holds your mobile phone, computer, or certain files on your computer hostage until money is paid, is increasingly becoming a cyber criminals favorite kind of weapon.
In fact, there was a 165% increase in new ransomware during the first quarter of 2015, according to a data published
Tuesday by the security firm McAfee.

Why is Ransomware becoming a big deal all of sudden?

Ransomware, like any other kind of malware, is taking off because its a lucrative business for cyber criminals. Hackers can make thousands of dollars each month depending on how many people opt to pay the ransom.

Cyber-thieves usually demand anywhere from $200 to $5,000 as an initial payment and give the victim detailed instructions about how to pay the ransom, according to the FBI. And if the victim doesnt pay within a certain period of time, the ransom may double or the files on the infected device will be completely destroyed.


It is especially dangerous because its very hard to detect. Often times the ransomware comes in the form of email spam that looks legitimate. It can also be spread in newsgroup postings, peer-to-peer networks and internet relay chat, according to McAfee�s report.

The most important thing you can do, bar-none, is to continue to make backups of your data," he said. "Because in the worse case scenario your computer becomes affected and your hard drive becomes encrypted you can at least revert back to the last good backup."

Second, you should always be weary of what you click on, the websites you visit and what software you download, Glassberg cautioned. This can be tricky because ransomware can often times look very legitimate, but that just means people should be extra cautious.

Full story:
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-protect-yourself-from-ctb-locker-ransomware-2015-6

all so watch the prefixes in the link as well as on sight names since links can be changed to anything

is why i have multiple computers
one for fun the other for business

most they can get out of this one is my ip adress and the fake names i have on it lol


happy hunting : )

I backup on a different HD. I hate azz holes that do this.

i have nothing to back up on this computer
just a couple pics ,that i can get right back off the net if needed
<shrug>

Try it with mine let alone seeing mine pfft x86 hahah.

The most interesting ransomware I've read about recently was the attack on iphones. Some kids in Russia exploited apple's failure to offer basic protections to their users, and remote-locked the devices of many iphone users.

The users were directed to send money to have their phone unlocked.

I saw something similar to this on a friends computer a few years back except it said it was the federal government and it locked his computer because he was doing illegal stuff and needed to pay a fine first. It wouldn't even let me get into the bios or enter safe mode. Luckily he had an external hard drive that was just an internal one inside a casing so we pulled that apart, installed it, and installed a fresh copy of windows. At least he had a computer. I told him to hold onto the drive because there are probably people more versed in this kind of stuff than me and could salvage it. (I am more of a hardware guy myself)

If it went into the bios it could lock him out permanently. Well, at least he was able to overwrite that in a simple way.

Edited of off-topic targeting of other members.

soufie
Site Moderator

dont trust over mcAfee ... can easily bypass it .....

this happened to me a couple of times, all you need to do is boot your comp in safe mode, and run a virus scan

sometime virus scan dont work even

if you run it while in safe mode, it pulls a lot of the rootkits out that it doesn't see while all the drivers are active...