Ransom Ware

[naturist]

I was just reading a computer-specific forum I hang out in, and noted a lot of discussion about Ransomware, and that a lot of people and businesses are being taken in by an email ostensibly from a family member, trusted business associate, or a potential client with an attachment that turns out to be the crypto ware.

There was also a case of someone getting an email from the company's owner directing her to write a check for a significant sum and mail it to a name/address she did not recognize. She dutifully wrote the check, stuck it in an envelope and stamped it, and was about to drop it in the mail when that owner called her about another matter, and in the course of the conversation, she inquired about this new name, only to learn that the boss knew nothing about it. His email had been faked and his email address forged (which, btw, is very easy to do). They had almost been scammed out of that money. She was wondering if there were any way to safeguard email communications and verify authorship.

And it turns out that there is. The commercially available PGP encryption software and it's freeware open source implementation known as GPG both afford us all both email encryption and independently a way to sign and verify email and its attachments. There are Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS implementations of the GPG software. I know of at least Mac and Windows versions of PGP.

Just a heads up for those interested.

[1492]

As I mentioned in another thread, the only real protection against ransomware is making periodic backups, secured from direct write access. Whether you do so by disconnecting the cable, powering off, or restricting write privileges to a backup drive.

Though the FBI and Interpol have shut down cryptoware servers in the past, they come back on line fairly rapidly in another form. Most likely as they are making hundreds of millions of dollars with this scam. Which means, they are not going away.

[TugCE]

This is the reason that every email that I send has From XXXX in the subject line. Everyone that knows me know that I do this and NOT to open anything from me without this in the subject line.

My Cousin crashes her computer quite often, which I have to try and fix. Since I "Trained her to do this, I have saved my system from getting nailed after she got hit again.

[AllegroD]

As pointed out above, this is not ransom ware. Ransom ware encrypts you harddrive and the creators will only unlock your files if you pay money. This is a scam.

[Chris_Bryant]

Looking through a days worth of spam with attachments, I get subjects of:
Ticket
New Payment Received
Increased Transaction Fee
Upcoming Payment 1 Month Notice
Someone Might Be Using Your Account6DF10294 (this one has random numbers in the subject)
Refund Unsuccessful (random number)

This is 187 messages, 90% this stuff, just from overnight.

[chuckbear]

Never, ever, ever click on a link in an email or open an attachment, even if it's from someone you know until you can verify from another method other than email that is was sent and safe. Scan any attachments with an anti-virus before opening and even then be weary. People get viruses, ransomware and malware because they do careless things. Chuck

[ksg5000]

Not sure I would label that as ransom ware vs a computer scam. As I understand it ransom ware is associated with computer infection which encrypts your hardrive and you have to pay some scum bag for the key to allow access.

[tchil]

software like crashplan will help with the ransom ware

[Harvey51]

Watch out for attachments! An adult learning center here got an email with an "invoice" attached. Secretary claims she never opened it but it somehow encrypted all the files in the documents folder of her account. No way to see them again. Good thing she had a backup not too old.

[gbopp]

I don't have to worry about anyone emailing me and along for money. 😉

Thanks for the heads up.

[MNGeeks61]

Where I work, we're trying to move away from PGP at the corporate level, we use Zixmail and Voltage 🙂 But yes, it can be handy. Downside is that you need to provide the keys to the people you're sending secured email to.

Actually secured email in general can be a pain, but it's better than being "hacked". Of course not many people use lengthy/strong passwords, and imho it's better to use phrases like "sil3nceIk33ly0u!" than shorter passwords like "iluvmywife" as words are easy as heck to brute force...

[BarryG20]

That has actually happened to a couple hospitals over the last few months have seen it on the news. They paid, the amounts were 15-20k iirc. Now it may very well have been a much more sophisticated hack than a simple email they did not go into detail but nonetheless.

[2oldman]

naturist wrote:
etting an email from the company's owner directing her to write a check for a significant sum and mail it to a name/address she did not recognize. She dutifully wrote the check, stuck it in an envelope and stamped it,

there's one born every minute.