PC Pirates

griffin2003 · Post by **griffin2003** » Sun Jan 07, 2018 3:15 am

FYI I just had the experience where a page pops up saying "Your computer has been taken over" more or less and you can't do anything or your files will be taken over and you're directed to go where the page directs. I turned off the laptop then tried to boot up and go back on line but was hi-jacked again. I turned it off again then booted back up w/o going on-line then ran windows defender complete scan and it found the baddie and fixed it. Seems okay now.

megamarkd · Post by **megamarkd** » Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:03 am

Sounds like ransomware; a script is injected somehow into your PC that encrypts various files that the criminals perceive as personal files you would pay to have unlocked, eg pictures and videos. It's an old attack these days and I'm not surprised Defender cleared up the issue, but it's still an annoying experience.

Joe Gerardi · Post by **Joe Gerardi** » Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:30 am

Restore from your backup using the one from 2 days before this happened, and you should be fine.

..Joe

megamarkd · Post by **megamarkd** » Mon Jan 08, 2018 12:47 am

Joe Gerardi wrote:Restore from your backup using the one from 2 days before this happened, and you should be fine.

..Joe

Not always, some of the variations delete shadow copies, restore points and other MS ways of backing up data. Thus the rule of 3's....

Timo · Post by **Timo** » Mon Jan 08, 2018 3:59 pm

Do you use any dedicated security software, like anti-virus, anti-malware/spyware or the like?

I use Avast and Malwarebytes, both are free. Avast has saved my arse a number of times now over the last decade, unlike AVG. I occasionally use Spybot, but it feels deprecated thesedays.

What Windows OS are you using? Is it fully updated?

If I had such a high level threat like a ransomware attack I'd, personally, be very tempted to backup all data and reinstall the OS from a former image (if you have one), or reset/install the OS from scratch. A drastic action, perhaps, but at least I would know the computer would be entirely free of the threat.

Derek Cook · Post by **Derek Cook** » Mon Jan 08, 2018 6:41 pm

Also highly recommend you have your data backed up off site via a service like Carbonite or similar. Whilst the current alert affects secure data centres as much as your home computer, the odds of you being struck in both places are hopefully still low. And of course backup locally as well.

megamarkd · Post by **megamarkd** » Tue Jan 09, 2018 2:03 am

Derek Cook wrote:Also highly recommend you have your data backed up off site via a service like Carbonite or similar. Whilst the current alert affects secure data centres as much as your home computer, the odds of you being struck in both places are hopefully still low. And of course backup locally as well.

Quoting for effect. Rule of 3's to a tee. Online offline offsite.

DwayneDep · Post by **DwayneDep** » Sat May 05, 2018 2:20 pm

Derek Cook wrote:Also highly recommend you try D-Bal Max and have your data backed up off site via a service like Carbonite or similar. Whilst the current alert affects secure data centres as much as your home computer, the odds of you being struck in both places are hopefully still low. And of course backup locally as well.

That's some scary stuff, man. Didn't happen to me and I hope it never does. It did happen to the company I used to work for though. They're still recovering from that ransomware attack a year later.

alfredharper · Post by **alfredharper** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 10:03 pm

Sorry for bumping such an old thread, but I have seen similar issues at other forums and I can say that it can be a cyberattack and you risk losing some data in such cases. I've read a lot of information about How Much Damage Does Data Leakage cause? So it will be good to use any antiviruses and antimalware to prevent such a problem. You risk losing very important data.