blackcatula: supaslim: WARNING ABOUT A REALLY...

Oct 24, 2013

311,580 notes

supaslim:
WARNING ABOUT A REALLY NASTY NEW VIRUS.
Meet CryptoLocker. It’s your worst nightmare. A lot of antivirus software, including the big names, cannot yet detect or stop it. If your computer gets it, CryptoLocker takes all your files hostage by encrypting them and giving you a certain amount of time to send a certain amount of money to the man behind the virus.
The encryption is very tidy, and so far seems uncrackable (well, crackable, but it might take a couple centuries). If you tamper with the virus itself, it will pretty much self-destruct and take everything with it. And the way the money is transferred, the dick programmer behind it all for the moment is pretty much uncatchable.
YOU CANNOT GET RID OF THIS VIRUS WITHOUT COMPLETELY WIPING YOUR COMPUTER. YOUR ONLY CHANCE IS PREVENTION AND PREPARATION.
Back up your computer to something like an external hard-drive, or even an internal hard-drive that you just take out and stuff away somewhere for safe keeping. Make sure your antivirus is up to date, avoid skeevy sites, and don’t open random emails. DO NOT download email attachments unless you know exactly what it is, because that seems to be how this is primarily being transmitted.
You can learn more about it here.
We’ve actually run into this at work. It’s extremely aggressive and a major fucking pain to get rid of. One of our guys got infected with it and even paid the company whatever fee they charge to decrypt the files, and due to “an error processing the first payment”, ended up double-charging him (no refunds, of course) and is virtually untrackable.
Literally fuck this guy with a cactus. Like, if you see him, offer to introduce him to your little cactus friend in a quite personal and intimate manner. This shit is FUCKING INEXCUSABLE.
Also, bulk up on your virus protection, limit your porn and illegal cartoon-watching and torrents to safe sites, DO NOT OPEN EMAIL ATTACHMENTS UNLESS YOU’RE EXPECTING THEM, and just be careful in general, cause this one is one of the nastiest viruses around.
I wouldn’t reblog a virus alert unless I was dead serious about how bad it is.

Reblogged from ask-colossal-coward