Cryptolocker Virus Alert: How to protect yourself
2 min read
Cryptolocker virus
Virus Alert
As if spyware, adware, and trojans weren’t bad enough, how about Ransomware? It seems hackers have found a new way to infect our computers. The problem is, once it’s on your system there isn’t anything you can do about it. If you have cryptolocker on your system, it’s already too late. The only way to get your files back is to pay the ransom. Are you going to trust the hackers who just encrypted all your files to unlock them if you pay their fee?
About Cryptolocker virus
- It’s Ransomware. That means to unlock your files, the hackers demand you pay a ransom.
- It disguises itself as a legitimate attachment in emails and websites
- Even the best virus protection programs may not detect Cryptolocker
- Even if detected and removed, your important files may still be locked and impossible to open
- Cryptolocker may be easy to remove from your computer, but unlocking your files is highly infeasible if not impossible.
Protecting yourself from Cryptolocker virus
- Do not open email attachments from people you don’t know or trust
- If an email attachment or link seems suspicious, contact the sender directly first to make sure they actually sent you that email
- Keep up-to-date virus protection and firewall (No guarantee)
- The ONLY fail safe solution is to have a good backup Go as far to even keep a backup of your backups of all of your important files. Keep more than one backup, I suggest having at least two backup drives. Do a backup at least weekly if not daily. Keep your backup drive separate and unconnected from your system as this virus can jump from drive to drive. Keep at least one backup that you never connect back to your system just in case one of your backups become infected
USB flash drives, in my opinion, are one of the best solutions for making a backup. Don’t let their small sizes fool you. These tiny guys can pack a ton of Gigabytes. Some up to 128GB! Plus they are highly portable and convenient.
USB’s are powerful enough the last several years that pretty much all software should be from USB drives instead of CD’s. Y
ou just buy the USB drive that is preloaded with a game or two at the store then once you’re home plug the USB drive into you’re computer to load that program or game in and then install like normal.
Say good bye to CD drives. If only people actually do that.
For critically important data, make at least two backups on read-only media like CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. It’s physically impossible for a virus to delete or encrypt data that’s been stored that way.
Note: make sure it’s a CD-R or DVD-R you use – it’s theoretically possible for a virus to erase a CD-RW or DVD-RW.
What about cloud storage?
I’ve never heard of a virus targeting cloud storage, but there’s no technical reason why it shouldn’t. Anything you put in cloud storage can be deleted again, even if there’s a “don’t let me delete this by accident” option. There always needs to be a way for the user to tidy up old files they don’t need anymore or overwrite them with updated versions.
I think the way to see cloud storage is as a low-cost means of getting an instant offsite backup. If your hard drives, CD-Rs and/or DVD-Rs are destroyed – perhaps in a fire, for example – then you can get the data back from the cloud.
There is a snag, though – anyone with access to the cloud server can look at your files, be it the cloud storage company’s employees or a Government agent with a court order. If you want to ensure maximum privacy, encrypt your backup files for yourself before you upload them to the cloud server.
As you can see, every method of backing up data has its own advantages and disadvantages, so diversity is key. A good prepper analogy might be to have different types of backups for the same reasons as you’d want to have different ways to light a fire.
For completeness: I still see external hard drives and USB sticks as a great way to do wholesale backups, ready for that moment when you think “oops, I didn’t mean to delete that.” Even if the file wasn’t important enough to make your CD-R, DVD-R or cloud store, it’s still nice to avoid the hassle of reconstructing it or trying to remember where you originally got it from.