In the past several days, we’ve been visited by some old malware friends, mostly through email, and mostly caught. But, we recently spent a couple “enjoyable” (note tongue planted firmly in cheek) days cleaning up a CryptoWall 3.0 infection.
The old, orginal Cryptolocker has been defanged for a while – but there are always new Crypto variants which have gotten better at escaping detection and defying cleanup. Still, the way they work is mostly the same as the original.
They depend on tricking a user into clicking a link in an email – and that link goes to a malicious site that downloads code. That code encrypts data files, rendering them unusable without decryption. The crypto criminals charge (sometimes a lot) for the decryption.
So, as is often the case, the first, best defense is a vigilant, cautious user who doesn’t click through suspicious links or open attachments in unusual emails.
The only recourse after a Crypto infection has run its course is to pay the ransom demanded by the crypto criminals for the decryption key (and that doesn’t always work) -- or restore from backup. Good, current, reliable backup has never been more important. Fortunately, in this most recent occurrence, the client had our Vigilance BDR backup and disaster recovery system -- and all encrypted data was recovered without paying a ransom. So, that’s the “old”…and the “new,” too, I suppose
The good “new” is an article on Windows 10, which as has been recently announced, will be available in late July. We’ve been running a technical preview here for a couple of months (on my daily use laptop, actually) and have been pretty pleased even with this “beta test” version. We’ll have more to say next month, too.
Also in this issue… another article in our continuing series to help with getting more love for your Website with a high-level discussion of “SEO”.
