Author: C.T.O.

There’s some nasty malware showing up in inboxes right now, disguised as fake receipts and documents, or delivered on web sites from a very fake ‘You must update your… ‘ message. While these have always been a major source of computer attacks, the current batch deserves special prevention and backups. CryptoWall 2.0, CryptoLocker, and other ransomware arrive quietly, encrypt all your documents in the background, and then place a ransom notice on your screen, asking for payment in Bitcoins or an untraceable money order. The encryption is not breakable on most variations of this ransomware; the best defenses are to never work with an administrator account (use ‘standard’ or ‘limited’), and to backup your entire computer on a schedule, and unplug the backup device between backups–these programs encrypt every document they can see, even on backup drives and networks.

We have more information on prevention, either do-it-yourself or as a service, here. And we can help with the cleanup, in central Maryland.

You would think that the malware pushers would know better than to place a phone call to a company that specializes in cleaning up malware and try to lie to us. Nope. So here’s what’s happening:

The phone rings, I answer, and manage to start recording right after. The standard LIES are that they’re from Microsoft, and are in the US, and can see viruses in your computer, and can clean them up, and can be trusted, and, on and on–all wrong. The skill level of whoever wrote the script is high enough that they do point to screens that do show information that is sufficiently technical that it looks scary. They take you to the ‘event log’–that’s a list of routine stuff. Not scary unless the computer is already spitting sparks out the front.

Don’t try this at home. The result of letting these guys actually play in your PC are not pretty for your computer or your credit card. When you get this phone call, just hang up.