Hot off the press, there’s a new version on ransomware that is cheaper to unlock, and there’s bad news and more bad news.
Yes, they charge only a portion of a bitcoin to get the key to unlock the files they’ve encrypted. Except that they haven’t encrypted them. They’ve actually deleted the files. So if you pay the ransom to get the key to unlock the files, they make off with the money and you never get a key.
What should you do about it? After the fact, nothing. Just learn not to do it again. What to do right now–backup, backup, backup. If you have a backup of your critical files, and you know what software you run, you can say NO to the criminals that want your money in exchange for providing the valuable service of making your computer inoperable.
Backup.
Backup.
Backup.
I’d love to hear any questions you have about ransomware–or any other computer or system security questions you may have. Drop a line in the comments.
