How to Avoid CryptoLocker Ransomware
A handful of frantic Microsoft Windows users have asked how to recover from PC infections from “CryptoLocker,” the generic name for an increasingly prevalent and nasty strain of malicious software that encrypts your files until you pay a ransom. For years, security experts have emphasized the importance of backing up one’s files as a hedge against disaster in the wake of a malware infestation. Unfortunately, if your backup drives are connected physically (USB for example), or via the local network to the PC that gets infected with CryptoLocker, your backups may also become encrypted as well.
Computers infected with CryptoLocker may initially show no outward signs of infection; this is because it often takes many hours for the malware to encrypt all of the files on the victim’s PC and attached or networked drives. When that process is complete, however, the malware will display a pop-up message similar to the one pictured above, complete with a countdown timer that gives victims a short window of time in which to decide whether to pay the ransom or lose access to the files forever. Windows users should check out CryptoPrevent Links to an external site., a tiny utility from John Nicholas Shaw, CEO and developer of Foolish IT, a computer consultancy based in Outer Banks, N.C. Another option might be cloud data storage systems such as the new Microsoft Office One-Drive, since it is not connected and susceptible like a network shared drive or USB drive.