PSA - Ransomware......Make sure you are backing up your data.....

northGAcock

As I was headed up for bed last night, I caught reference to a news article https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul6dLCnKL4A ....they were speaking of going after those who infect peoples commuters. Well d@mn if I didn't get one today on my work computer. I am unable to open all of my existing files....it made for a sucky day of work. Help desk was able to remove it, but my files are not accessible. Tomorrow I will get a thumb drive and a full re image of my laptop. What a PITA this is.......

The purpose of this post is to make folks aware that this is hitting computer users hard. Once they infect your computer, there is no way of getting your files back without paying their ransom. The solution is to take your computer back to its original state when you purchased / or was issued to you. It is VERY IMPORTANT to have a back up of your data. Fortunately for me, my company does so frequently, and there will be little if any data files lost. If you don't have a solution and you value your data.....get a external drive or service asap. 

Thatgrimguy

I had a manager at my store lose everything on his desktop to that crap... Luckily he only had emails and stuff, nothing of major importance. 

nolaegghead

PEEPLEZ!  DON'T CLICKY THING ON PR0N AT WORK!!!

RRP

Thanks for the reminder! I haven't backed up my Time Machine since March! Me bad, but the backup is in progress now!

bgebrent

RRP said:

Thanks for the reminder! I haven't backed up my Time Machine since March! Me bad, but the backup is in progress now!

Ron, you likely know this but you can set your Time Machine/Capsule to back up automatically if I'm not mistaken.  Not an expert.

RRP

bgebrent said:

RRP said:

Thanks for the reminder! I haven't backed up my Time Machine since March! Me bad, but the backup is in progress now!

Ron, you likely know this but you can set your Time Machine/Capsule to back up automatically if I'm not mistaken.  Not an expert.

Thanks - and yes I knew that, but here's my rationale as silly as it sounds - I try to back it up on My Passport Ultra and then unplug it and put it in a secured fire proof chest. I'm more concerned in the ability to recover in the event of a fire or from a tornado than just losing some most recent updated files.

northGAcock

RRP said:

bgebrent said:

RRP said:

Thanks for the reminder! I haven't backed up my Time Machine since March! Me bad, but the backup is in progress now!

Ron, you likely know this but you can set your Time Machine/Capsule to back up automatically if I'm not mistaken.  Not an expert.

Thanks - and yes I knew that, but here's my rationale as silly as it sounds - I try to back it up on My Passport Ultra and then unplug it and put it in a secured fire proof chest. I'm more concerned in the ability to recover in the event of a fire or from a tornado than just losing some most recent updated files.

Cloud storage is the way to go....best of both worlds....especially since money is really not an issue with you.

DMW

RRP said:

bgebrent said:

RRP said:

Thanks for the reminder! I haven't backed up my Time Machine since March! Me bad, but the backup is in progress now!

Ron, you likely know this but you can set your Time Machine/Capsule to back up automatically if I'm not mistaken.  Not an expert.

Thanks - and yes I knew that, but here's my rationale as silly as it sounds - I try to back it up on My Passport Ultra and then unplug it and put it in a secured fire proof chest. I'm more concerned in the ability to recover in the event of a fire or from a tornado than just losing some most recent updated files.

Good strategy. Good ransomware will encrypt the contents of your local drive as well as external drives that are mounted (like Time Machine). Keep an offline copy of your important stuff.

ColtsFan

Ransomware is a pita! Working in IT I've seen my fair share. Unfortunately, SOMETIMES the only option is to pay to get your files back. It depends on the importance of these files. Back that stuff up religiously and make sure your endpoint protection is utd