Virus?

[carolinesaunders]

Hi,

Has anyone had a virus which says that all of your files on your computer have been encrypted and that you have to pay money to get them back. I turned on my laptop this morning to be greeted with this message. I don't trust paying whoever has done this - they give instruction on using something called tor?? to pay them. I have tried to open my pictures but they won't open and all of the small thumbnail images have changed to a picture of strange zip type icon.

I don't want to lose my pictures as I have years of memories.

Caroline

[trevnhil]

I would say that you need to call in to a computer shop with your laptop straight away..

Trev..

[lion]

You will end up paying the ransom and they buy anti virus software to protect you in the future

[mikemurry]

I would not pay the money. Our neighbour in the UK got stung by paying a ransom on his computer maybe 18 months ago and ended up having huge issues with his card been used all over the world. He went through a lot of bother trying to get his money back, which he did after several months. Give Paphos PC Repair a call and ask their advice. We used them a few weeks ago and found them very good. Their telephone number is 95549075 http://paphospcrepair.com

Mike

[trevnhil]

Seeing that we are advertising. I would use SOS computers in Chloraka almost opposite Papantonios
http://www.computersoscyprus.com/

Trev.. an SOS satisfied customer

[lion]

There was a program on tv (BBC I think) who explained this problem.

Once the files are encrypted exceedingly hard job to decrypt.

They said there are two options, pay the ransom (which usually increases daily) or loose the files.

Some software like BitDefender actually has a module which monitor for rouge software which encrypts files.

Have you Google the problem?

[mikemurry]

Sorry Trev. I am new to the forum and did not know I was not supposed to mention any companies; I was only trying to be helpful. I am not trying to advertise - I have no affiliation to the company I mentioned, just that we used them and found their service good.

Sorry if I did something wrong

Mike

[trevnhil]

Hi Mike... No problems, It is a difficult fine line to tread. I think it is live links that are frowned upon, not naming a particular company.
But what do I know I have nothing to do with the running of the group, like you I am just a member .
Cheers. Trev..

[carolinesaunders]

Thank you to all members who have tried to help me in my time of need. My laptop is now fixed and I have my pictures back - YIPPEE

After posting on the forum this morning I contacted Computer SOS after seeing their ad at the top of the page. Brian and Sheryl kindly replied back promptly and said that my computer would need to be re-installed to fix the problem. Because the laptop has all of my husbands work programs on it I did not want to go to such drastic action if at all possible so I took Mike's recommendation and contacted Dom at Paphos PC Repair. Dom came out to my home this afternoon and has managed to remove the virus' and has recovered all but the last 3 days of my files. Apparently, the virus had not encrypted a hidden area within Windows which held a copy of my files so he was able to get 99% of my files back - Thank the Lord.

FYI: The virus I had was called Crypto-locker and is apparently quite common. Dom said that if people get this virus they should turn off the computer as quickly as possible and call someone out as the longer the virus runs on the computer the more chance there is of not been able to recover anything. He said I had been very lucky. Maybe I should put the lottery on this week Off to the shop now to purchase an external hard drive to back up my files.

Thank you again to all who have tried to help.

Caroline

[Road Warrior]

This is worth reading, advice as always, regularly back up what you don't want to lose, to an external back up device. Do not open E mails or click on links, that you are not sure about.
https://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-cr ... ker-virus/