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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: 2) by Hairyfeet on Thursday October 29 2015, @07:15PM
THIS, this right here. I stress to my customers that having multiple backups is critical and with both the prices of BD burners and USB HHDs being so cheap there is really no excuse. For your pictures and documents a single BD can hold more than most users will ever need and can easily be stored in a safety deposit box or a relative's home, and for backing up the entire OS and large data files like videos you can't beat the prices of multi-TB USB HDDs today.
BTW those looking at AVs who want to know which ones are the most likely to catch this crap? ESET and Comodo, every test I've read plus what I've seen with my own two eyes have shown these two to be the most capable, with the added bonus that Comodo is free for personal use. You have to tweak Comodo a little* if you want maximum protection but OOTB it will work pretty damned good and ESET is rock solid and ready to go OOTB but will cost you yearly so it all comes down to personal preference really.
*.- For those that want to know what to tweak here ya go, simply go in and turn on HIPS which is off by default, I usually set it to learning mode long enough to launch all their programs then set it for paranoid mode. Follow this up by telling it to sandbox everything, by default it sandboxes the browser (which is a HUGE benefit as most malware will come through the browser) but unless they are gaming the overhead of simply running everything in a sandbox is pretty trivial compared to the protection it provides. Then finally turn on Comodo Secure DNS which uses the same DNS they use for their server offerings, not only is it fast but they seem to catch recently infected pages a hell of a lot faster than anybody else. If you wish to use another DNS it won't make that much of a difference but the way I see it having phishing and recently infected sites blocked at the DNS level is just one more layer of security on top of the multiple layers Comodo already provides so why not? I have yet to see a customer that I have given this setup come back with so much as a single bug and considering how click happy some of my worst customers are? That is saying a HELL of a lot.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.