Sunday, December 22, 2013

Be Careful of Email Attachments: CryptoLocker Emails Can Freeze Your Computer

By Violet Blue

Dell SecureWorks estimates that CryptoLocker has infected 250,000 victims. The average payout is $300 each, and millions in laundered Bitcoin have been tracked and traced to the ransomware's money runners.

Spreading like wildfire from offices to homes, it arrives in email attachments (or over infected networks) to aggressively encrypt all files on a system (including mapped drives, Dropbox files, and all locally connected, network-attached, or cloud-based storage) - while an ominous onscreen timer demands payment within 72 hours.

Mess with the files or decline to pay and forget about ever opening your files again.

To date, no one has successfully defeated CryptoLocker. The Windows-only ransomware has held rapt the attention of malware fetishists since its formal appearance in September.

Read the rest here.

13 comments:

  1. Linux. LINUX. L-I-N-U-X!!!

    "When will you ever learn?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They will learn when they understand Bitcoin. These are the people who say they don't use Linux, "Because Microsoft is the Standard". You have heard this phrase before, just as I have. You are wasting your breath giving this advice here... but its worth it, just for the LULZ.

      Delete
    2. I use Ubuntu, yet still avoid Bitcoin.

      Trying to tie Bitcoin into the credibility established by Linux via analogy doesn't make an argument. You are truly mixing apples and oranges.

      Delete
  2. Hmm...makes you wonder why the perpetrators have not been caught - seeing how they are using bitcoins as one of their payment methods.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've been happily running Linux since 1993 and never had to worry about computer infections.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Came here to say "Linux, people". Two others beat me to the punch.

    If you still need Windows, run it in a virtual machine with Linux as the host. When (not if) it gets infected, it's much easier to get back to normal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You do know where you are giving this advice don't you? These are people who use computers as nothing more than Back-lit typewriters, they understand literally nothing about the tools they use.

      Delete
    2. Can you fix your own car or do you take it to a mechanic? Do you raise your own animals, slaughter, then butcher them yourself?
      Have you ever considered that some of us have ogre interests and it's easier to pay a guy like you who is arrogant as hell about his computer skills while we go and make money at something we're good at? It's called division of labor.
      You're so stupid because you can't fly or fix the airplane you fly on. You loser. You know nothing about the tools you use.
      Get it? IT asshole. Go back to your mom's basement.

      Delete
    3. AnonymousDecember 22, 2013 at 8:51 PM...Well played.

      Delete
  5. Here's a better link to the full article. The one in the post doesn't seem to want to let me in.

    http://www.zdnet.com/cryptolockers-crimewave-a-trail-of-millions-in-laundered-bitcoin-7000024579/

    ReplyDelete
  6. honey badger still defending shitcoins by begging the question. the thieves haven't been caught. great, let me purchase some shitcoins that have lost half their value in a day and can be stolen with no recourse for getting them back. only a fool would waste cash for shitcoins. buy gold.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @ Chris B December 22, 2013 at 7:19 PM

      1. My coins are up 10,000% in the last 24 months so, no, they haven't lost any value.
      2. Gold can also be stolen with "no recourse for getting them back."
      3. Gold is down 20% over the last 24 months while bitcoins are up 10,000% during the same time period. Who's the fool?

      You have serious anger-management issue although I can't say that I blame you. I'd be angry too if my investments were doing as poorly as yours.

      Delete