• About
  • Contact

Dagny's Desk

Dagny's Desk

Tag Archives: ransomware

Ransomeware Attack

28 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by Dagny Gromer in Computers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

malware, ransomware

A friend of ours lost a computer and all contained on it to a ransomware attack yesterday. Interestingly, a week of so ago an episode of The Good Wife tv show had a law firm attacked by ransomware. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, in this attack the victim’s computer has all its files encrypted by the hacker and all the computer will do is go to a web page that tells how to pay a ransom to get the key to unencrypted the computer files.

Our friend did not know how he was attacked. Generally its done by an opening an infected email or visiting a malicious web site. He was not able to recover with antivirus software, and he took the computer to a technician who said he could not fix it and that he saw several pc’s with the same infection. Our friend had a backup external drive which he leaves connected to his computer all the time and it too was ruined.

It was a Windows 7 pc that was attacked, but we Mac users should not get careless. To minimize risks: Don’t open emails that are not from someone you know and turn off your email client’s option to display the first few lines of emails automatically. Avoid dubious web sites, especially those that offer pirated software or bootleg movies or music. Porno sites are notorious for hosting malware – the only Mac virus infection I have ever personally seen was delivered by a porno site that required installation of a special media viewer, which was the virus carrier. Installing pirated software is an open invitation to trouble. Keep an offline backup that is not connected to your computer when you are not backing up. Mine stays in a safe.

Pages

  • About
  • Contact

Recent Posts

  • Cormorants
  • Dog pile
  • NYPD adding 600 to patrol subways
  • Introducing Penny
  • Winter swimmer

Recent Comments

Dagny Gromer on Fall color in Prescott, A…
Colorful Sisters on Fall color in Prescott, A…
Dagny Gromer on macOS 10.13 High Sierra and Da…
JayClay on macOS 10.13 High Sierra and Da…
You can Buy an Entir… on Cleator AZ
RSS  Subscribe

Flickr Photos

cormorant_landing-20210224-100cormorant_in_flight-20210224-100dog_pile_20210220_101
More Photos
February 2021
S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28  
« Jan    

Archives

Posts by Category

Dagny on Twitter

My Tweets

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy