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There is a particularly devious type of malicious software that locks users out of their own computer systems until an individual agrees to pay a ransom to the hackers. In these cases, the FBI has surprisingly suggested just ponying up the dough.
It's not the type of advice one would typically expected from the FBI, but that's exactly what was recommended by Joseph Bonavolonta, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's CYBER and Counterintelligence Program Boston office.
"The ransomware is that good," said Bonavolonta at the 2015 Cyber Security Summit in Boston, as quoted by Security Ledger. "To be honest, we often advise people just to pay the ransom."
Yeah, it's RT, but I did a search, and that or similar headlines popped up on dozens of news sites. I clicked a couple of them, and the stories match. Try this one,
https://thehackernews.com/2015/10/fbi-ransomware-malware.html
Personally, I can almost certainly afford to nuke and reinstall, unless they get my RAID array. Then - I'd have to think hard.
(Score: 1) by dak664 on Thursday October 29 2015, @06:11PM
You can get a secure incremental backup with just a 2x increase in storage cost and a few minutes every night. A raspberry pi can automate the process from all networked storage and needs very little attention. The beauty of incremental backup is when file(s) get encrypted or otherwise corrupted you can restore to any previous time on a new computer, within the granularity of your backup schedule.
Don't know if autobackup NAS if off-the-shelf, sounds like a good business opportunity if not. But anyone who ends up paying a ransom to get access to their own indispensible data is an idiot for trusting storage never to fail, and I would rather the FBI director had forcefully pointed that out instead of his wimpy "these things happen, pay up and move on".