Virus Alert ! computer virus takes hostage over your photo's and document files and asks for money

Virus Alert ! A new computer virus takes hostage over your photo's and document files and encrypts those and want to fee you so that they can be encrypted .

There seems to be no antiviral protection against it if you're already infected but experts say don't pay them because you never know if they gonna unlock your files!

We want to warn you about a new computer virus that's spreading around the world.

It's called the Crypto Locker Virus and it has made its way into the Tri-Cities. Like most computer viruses, the Crypto Virus is downloaded through an attachment from an email. Once it's on your computer, it locks all of your files and in a new twist, asks for ransom money to obtain the key for you to get your files back.


"I walked into my office Monday morning and turned on my computer and saw a horrible screen that said 'Crypto Virus,'" said Leila Noonan.

Noonan is the catering director at Shilo Inn in Richland.

She's been spending the last few days playing catch up after losing all her work files to the new dangerous virus.

"It has a list of files that it goes through and encrypts which basically locks you out completely of those files until you get the key, so without that key your files are lost," said Shawn Winget, owner of Wintech Computer Services in Kennewick.

How do you obtain that key? You literally have to pay ransom money.

It can be anywhere from $100-$700 that has to be paid through an untracebale payment method like a pre-paid credit card.

You only have a 72-hour window to do it before your files are gone forever.

Crypto Locker Virus

I didn't know were to put this but I think its pretty dangerous..
Any experts here on ATS that can tell us more about this virus?

And how to protect yourself from it?

Peace

reply to post by 0bserver1

Anyone concerned will also want to read the thread
Crypto Locker infects...
where people were discussing the issue.

reply to post by DISRAELI


Sorry coulnt find anything about it here that quick and just want to warn everybody .. so follow the other link.. ...

I've backup ed as much as I could and disconnect the hard drive...

reply to post by 0bserver1

Yes, my post wasn't meant as a criticism.
Just making sure everyone got all the help and info they needed.

reply to post by DISRAELI


I didn't took it that way..

This is just like the Virus that marks all the files on your hard drives as hidden and informs you that your computer has been used to view child porn/commit cyber terrorist acts. It then tell you the only way out is to pay such and such an amount of Euros, dead give away since my country's currency is Pounds Sterling.

Restore to a previous point/date and then running your antivirus/anti malware software generally does the trick!

andy06shake
This is just like the Virus that marks all the files on your hard drives as hidden and informs you that your computer has been used to view child porn/commit cyber terrorist acts. It then tell you the only way out is to pay such and such an amount of Euros, dead give away since my country's currency is Pounds Sterling.

Restore to a previous point/date and then running your antivirus/anti malware software generally does the trick!

edit on 7-11-2013 by andy06shake because: (no reason given)

Not true. This particular ransomware encrypts all of your documents and any documents it can access on mapped drives with RSA 2048. If you don't have a backup of your documents, you're either paying $300 for the key (BTC or Green dot MoneyPak) or you will never, ever, ever, ever get that data back.

reply to post by theantediluvian


But are there no alternatives if you got the virus. I mean can they reverse engineer this?

reply to post by theantediluvian


I said it just like meaning it was similar, obviously there not the exact same Virus.

Hopefully the antivirus providers will soon if they have not already add this nasty piece of work to there virus databases.

Millions hit by computer virus
by TIM UTTON, Daily Mail
The internet was under attack last night by the fastest-growing computer virus in history.
Worldwide systems were buckling after the 'Sobig.F' spread to 134 countries in just 96 hours, generating tens of millions of e-mails.
Experts fear it could increase the volume of electronic traffic by a staggering 60per cent, slowing the internet to a crawl.
It is believed to have cost British businesses alone hundreds of millions in lost orders and system crashes. The global cost will be immense.
Individual companies have been bombarded with millions of copies of the virus, while home users have seen their machines "jammed" by up to 6,000.
The PC World chain said tens of thousands of customers had brought in computers to be "cleaned" by technicians.
Experts say Sobig appears to have been written by senders of "spam" - unwanted junk e-mail - trying to find ways past internet filters which block their messages.
The new digital onslaught comes hard on the heels of two other major viruses, Blaster and Nachi. "This is the worst barrage of viruses in the history of computing," said Graham Cluley of Sophos Anti-Virus.
"Even companies who are properly protected are feeling a slowdown.
"Sobig. F is the fastest-spreading virus of all time and if it carries on at this pace for a few more days it will become the most prevalent too."
MessageLabs, a British-based Internet security firm, said it had intercepted more than a million copies of Sobig.F in 24 hours, more than for any other virus.
One in 17 of all e-mails sent since Monday was infected. By comparison the 'LoveBug' virus, which hit the headlines three years ago, was found in one in every 28 e-mails at its height.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

People who are responsible for this should be tarred and feathered

I can't understand those that don't make a regular back up on an external hard drive and if this happens to them it is easy just to restore the PC again. Make two separate backups on two different hard drives though in case one is corrupt....