CryptoLocker - What is it and how you can avoid it.
Over the last couple of weeks, Many of my clients have been targeted by one of the nastiest virus/trojans I've ever encountered: CryptoLocker. Once run on a computer the virus finds files on the hard drive and encrypts them. A message is then left telling the victim to pay money to decrypt the files. There is no way to decrypt the files without paying (which I doubt would be guaranteed). CryptoLocker can also be known as CryptoWall.
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| Scam email used to redirect victims to malicious code |
Here's what you can do to avoid infection and to minimise its impact:
1. Backup - If you have any irreplaceable photos, movies and other files on your computer, copy them to an external drive, disconnect the drive and keep it in a safe place. The virus can lock files on any attached drives including mapped network drives.
2. Be Alert - Always be suspicious of official looking emails from organizations that you have no prior dealings with with eg banks, government etc. If you can't think of a specific reason they would be emailing you then be extremely cautious. Traffic Infringement notices are not sent via email!
3. Browse Safe - Working using a modern internet browser is an effective way to hinder the way this Trojan can hijack your computer. Google Chrome and Firefox both automatically update themselves and have mechanisms to control malicious code from being executed. Internet Explorer auto updates its newer version, but if you are running older than IE 9 its time to update.
4. Stay Updated - Keeping your operating system and virus definitions up to date are essential. Updates are enabled by default for all modern operating systems and anti-virus packages. You can also manually check for updates through the application menu or control panel in Windows.
5. OS - Microsoft releases monthly updates for Windows 8, 7 and Vista. Windows XP support ended in April 2014 meaning no security updates are released for this operating system. Shockingly Windows XP (at the time of writing) still has 17% Marketshare for operating systems globally. This means that hundreds of millions of PCs are potential targets for CryptoLocker.
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