JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A new warning from the Better Business Bureau about a virus that continues to spread online and infect computer users. It is a cryptolock virus that blocks the user from accessing any of the data stored on their computer.
Tom Stephens from the BBB says the virus has encrypted the files of several local computer users making it impossible for them to access their contacts, pictures, spreadsheets, anything stored on their computer.
The data is not erased, but is locked and requires a "key" to retrieve it. The crooks demand a ransom in exchange for the key. "Anywhere between $300 to $500 to $1,000," says Stephens, who adds that attempts to break the encryption are nearly impossible.
Stephens says you should not pay the ransom, "there is no guarantee that they will give you the key. They are crooks and criminals already, so they are not concerned if they hold up to the deal or not. It is just throwing away money, " cautions Stephens.
The virus is spread several ways, "you click on a link from a tweet, you click on an attachment from an email or you go to a website that's infected," says Stephens who added often times the website owner may not even know their site is infected.
This happened to a family friend. He told me he received a message on his computer screen about a week and a half ago explaining that his data had been encrypted and that if he paid $300 he could have access to his files.
My friend, who did not want me to publish his name, says he took his computer to a computer expert who told him that he had received 5 calls that day from computer owners who had been infected with the same virus. He says he was told there was no way to break the encryption and his only option would be to purge the virus, and everything else on his computer, and then restore the files. Unfortunately, my friend had not backed up his files. He lost everything. He says the ransom has now reached $2,000.
Tom Stephens says to protect your computer you should have a clean backup system online or every week or so use an external hard drive to save your files. He says he protects his home computer with carbonite, an online back up plan that costs about $60 a year.
According to Carbonite's website, once installed, the automatic backup runs continually protecting new and changed files whenever a computer is connected to the internet. Carbonite says it creates encrypted copies of files and transmits them to a data center for secure storage. Stephens says there are several backup storage options available, other than Carbonite.
Stephens says this scam has happened mostly to home computer users since businesses typically have firewalls and backup their files to a cloud.