Ransomware: Extortion via the Internet

One more reason to backup your valuable data to removable media / drives.

Straight from the blog.

Keeping operating system and application software up-to-date, along with a decent anti-virus application will offer protection. Also, having current backups of all important data is a good idea, just in case.

Ransomware seems a lot like a standard "kill hard drive data" virus or the much more common "hard drive crash" with the exception that you get given some hope of retreving the data.

Yet another good reason to backup important data (or even the whole computer including the OS) regularly without fail.

ransomware sounds like a good application for my glockware.

With Dr. Joseph Popp becoming mentally unfit to prosecute (how convenient) And how they go around the loop holes in the law, These people such as the two researchers Adam Young and Moti Yung that pick up where Popp left off, these criminals should be prosecuted very heavily by making a loop hole with in a loop hole........yes another law, based on their actions....if there isn't already a law.

And basically destroy the pricks lives, to make them feel what its like to lose your work that was not backed up, but mostly the anguish each and every person effected by there actions to them accumalately.....yeah make their lives miserable, how fitting a punishment.

Please take a look at this: http://www.sandboxie.com/

This can go a long way to decrease vulnerabilities such as this. While not foolproof, I find it very helpful for protecting my computer. It has other good uses for trying out apps. you are skeptical of, also.

Yep, me too. One of my kids naively clicked on one of the pop-up screens that claimed the computer was infected and would fix it. Of course, this malware installed itself on the computer, disabled the existing AV software and prevented an scans using safe mode, internet scan, etc. etc. The annoying pop-ups demanding "ransom" became so frequent that the computer was unusable. I couldn't clean it even using a separate boot CD.

My successful solution was to remove the hard-drive from the computer and place it in an external USB hard-drive case, plug it into a "clean" computer already running and then scan and clean the hard drive "externally". After two iterations of scanning and cleaning, I was able to rid the hard drive of these demons.

As frustrated as I was trying to get my computer back, if the maker of that software were in the room and I had a firearm, I would have gladly provided him or her a case of acute cerebral lead poisoning.

My successful solution was to remove the hard-drive from the computer and place it in an external USB hard-drive case, plug it into a "clean" computer already running and then scan and clean the hard drive "externally".

Nowdays this is dead easy and cheap to do and a great alternative when you cannot boot up the infected computer.

Definitely the easiest way to rid a drive of these tenacious malware programs. Knowing now what I learned the hard way, I wouldn't waste 10 minutes if the AV won't run, scan and clean the system any longer.

Shut 'er down, yank 'er out, and clean the drive externally.