Virus

I just received the following this morning and thought I would pass it on:

I normally do not send out blanket emails to my clients, but this one is fairly important. There is a new virus going around that really, really packs a wallop and you need to be aware of it. Please forward this email to anyone that you feel might benefit, including all of your employees.

The virus will most likely come in the form of an attachment to an email. It might look like a .pdf file, but it is really disguised as a .exe file. When you click on the file you are really launching the virus.

Once the virus is on your computer, it searches for all of your data files and encrypts them. If it is successful in encrypting them, it will then give you a pop-up that offers to decrypt your files for a one-time fee of $300. It only gives you 72 hours to respond to this offer before it will delete the decryption key from its records and then your files will be impossible to decrypt.

PLEASE READ THIS PART. Once your files are encrypted, it is currently IMPOSSIBLE to decrypt them without the key from the people that created the virus. This means that unless you pay the $300, you cannot recover your files. Supposedly even the NSA cannot help you. If the 72 hours goes by and you do not pay, you will never see those files again unless you have a good backup.

So what do you do?

First, you need to make sure that you have a good backup system in place and that it works. We are currently recommending Carbonite for our desktop systems. They have very affordable desktop and enterprise plans.

Second, do not open any attachments that you are not expecting, even if it is from a friend. Your friend might be infected and not even know it yet. The rule for this is, if you did not ask for it, don't open it.

You can read a bit more about this virus at the link below:

http://blog.malwarebytes.org/intelligence/2013/10/cryptolocker-ransomware-what-you-need-to-know/

Also please note that currently this virus only affects PCs. All Apple products are not affected.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me by replying to this email.

(I obviously don't want to put my friend's email on here)