What’s worse than a Speeding fine?
Cryptolocker PRETENDING to be a speeding fine and scrambling all of your documents!
We’ve had several clients this week receive fake Infringement Notices (speeding fines) via email – the emails were actually the latest version of the cryptolocker virus.
Cryptolocker is a nasty one – it will encrypt your files and you can’t get them back without paying a RANSOM. That’s right! They’ve found a way to make you pay them for sending you a virus.
This is the only virus that Dave has been unable to recover files from, so if you open the link you can almost guarantee that your files will be gone. Even the best virus protection can’t always stop this one before it encrypts your files, because you actually have to click the link to infect yourself.
How do you defend yourself?
NEVER open any suspicious emails. The Office of State Revenue (OSR or “the guys who send speeding fines”) has stated that it will NEVER contact you by email about a fine – that goes for banks and other institutions as well, they won’t email you links because they want you to assume that any email claiming to be from them is really a virus. If you’ve received an email that says you have a fine you can call OSR to put your mind at ease.
BACKUP – If you’ve opened the file you can either pay the ransom OR very simply revert to your most recent backup. You have got a backup right? Backups really are your best defence (especially if you have staff who might open the email accidentally), so if you don’t have one in place….
SWITCH OFF – If you have opened the email you can try to pull the plug on your computer and see if you can beat a speeding virus. Sometimes you can save a few files this way, because the virus can’t keep working on your files while your computer is off.
For more info on Crytplocker check out our in depth blog,
Safe Computing,
Jen and Dave