I just got word from one of my friends outside AGS that there's a new ransomware virus known as CryptoLocker. And considering what I hear about it, it's REALLY nasty!
I reblogged the info on my Tumblr, so check it out for more info.
Click here to learn more of this nasty virus. (http://maverickhunterdboy.tumblr.com/post/64890205411/amtrax-blackcatula-supaslim-warning-about)
Remember to be net-savvy and use common sense--don't open attachments unless you know who they're from, don't visit any suspicious sites... that sort of thing.
*sigh* Honestly, why are there people who have nothing better to do than to make others' lives miserable?
That sounds pretty bad indeed.
A tip (probably well known by now):
Use a second, non-administrator account to go online. Only switch to your admin account if you must.
Wow, this is evil. I hate people.
Thanks for spreading the news, DBoy. :) I personally didn't know about it until the very moment I read your thread. I read your blog and googled it for more information, too.
Thanks once again! (nod)
Well at least someone is finally attempting to make money off their viruses. I can almost admit that I prefer that over the purely malicious--for the sake of seeing the world burn--kind of viruses.
This is what happens when people don't get the sex.
Nasty stuff indeed. I don't really get it though. I remember when you got a virus from a FLOPPY DISK. Getting a virus was a risk you faced when you were getting a cracked/copied/hacked copy of a game, which was illigal in the first place, so people couldn't really complain when they got one. And back then some viruses were, let's face it, downright playful. Autumn Leaves, do you remember that one?
Seems these days it's all about causing the maximum damage possible, on as many computers as possible. Shame, really.
Quote from: Ghost on Thu 24/10/2013 02:23:34
Nasty stuff indeed. I don't really get it though. I remember when you got a virus from a FLOPPY DISK.
That's only because you're old, Ghost. That was way back when people still had sex in person instead of through the intertubes like we do today. It was a frightening, uncertain time (and messy!). We're all better off that such days are behind us and no one has to go out into the daylight anymore. :=
And thanks for the warning, DBoy!
No, Ponch, sex in person still DOES happen. Don't worry about it buddy.
Quote from: Sunny Penguin on Thu 24/10/2013 04:03:13
No, Ponch, sex in person still DOES happen. Don't worry about it buddy.
What? I thought you kids today had evolved beyond that sort of thing. I'm almost certain I read about it on the tubes! And the tubes wouldn't lie to me, would they? :=
We are the downfall of civilisation, so I wouldn't count on evolution! :P
Darn you, kids! Stop downfalling the civilizations! Your parents and grandparents worked very hard on that civilization, so stop it at once! And get off my lawn! I'm trying to have sex on teh tubes!!
I'm wondering: If I use dropbox and get a virus on one machine, does that mean I need to assume it's spread to all the machines connected to my dropbox account?
A different flavor of that one got me a few weeks ago...I was using my laptop while visiting my cousin's place in Nashville and had been looking for some torrents on Pirate Bay when my spyware blocker went crazy. I closed everything figuring nothing had happened, and came back later to find a version of that screen. It tried to appear to be a joint effort between a local ISP and the FBI, and basically said you had to pay a fine for the first offense. It correctly showed directories where I had MP3s and AVIs.
Now since I'm not familiar with the ISP I was using, I freaked out for about a minute because I had heard that some ISPs in the U.S. were cracking down on people downloading torrents. And that lasted until I actually read through the fine print. Luckily, it was clearly a fear-based scam written by the King Kong of idiots.
So I looked up the virus on another computer and how to get it rid of it. I rebooted in safe mode with command prompt, deleted some registry entries, ran both Spybot and my company's virus cleaner, and then everything was fine.
Quote from: Snarky on Thu 24/10/2013 07:44:38
I'm wondering: If I use dropbox and get a virus on one machine, does that mean I need to assume it's spread to all the machines connected to my dropbox account?
Only if you run executable files from your dropbox? And actually I haven't seen anyone mention whether the virus actually infects any executables or not.
Does anyone know if this virus goes after shared network drives, or does it limit itself to the local HD?
[Edit] Never mind... I did my own googling. :P
From Infosecurity:
"The malware searches for files to encrypt on all drives and in all folders it can access from the compromised computer, including workgroup files shared by colleagues and resources on company servers."
Your data is at the mercy of coworkers who are much less savvy. Sigh...
I saw Al Lowe's email. Thanks for sending him that information too. (nod)
From my research on this virus, the safest way is to regularly make backups on an offline external hard drive. External Hard Drives are getting cheaper with each passing day. Be sure to make proper backups once in a week, especially after adding some important data.
Also, make sure to disable your internet and scan your files before backing them up. Always be sure that your external hard drive is connected to your computer only when you want to backup. Remove it as soon as you're done. Make sure that all of the files-to-be-backed-up are stored in an archive, preferably with hard-to-guess password. I've personally witnessed that many viruses find it difficult to infect the .exes stored in an archive.
Yes, exhaustive and painful way, but it helps. :)
We'll have to be on alert now, fellow AGSers. To quote Andail:
Quote from: AndailBe vigilant, citizen!
Or to go the simplest way, stop downloading porn for the sake of your privates! Hire a hooker, trust me, it'll be cheaper than having to pay those fraudsters multiple times. (roll)
I kind of hate having this attitude, but it is what it is:
If you're stupid enough to open an attachment blindly then not only do you deserve this (or any) virus, you deserve to have to [double] pay to get rid of it!
It's 2013. If you haven't learned the rules of being online by now... **see statement above**
Don't get me wrong; I'd love to see this guy "fucked by a cactus". But he's just taking advantage of stupid people. As countless have done before him and countless more will continue to do after him.
So long as there's stupid people, this kind of thing will continue.
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Thu 24/10/2013 12:56:16
So long as there's stupid people, this kind of thing will continue.
My father always used to say the same words to me. He was indeed correct.
I didn't open shit for the variant that hit me off of Pirate Bay or possibly BitSoup. My company virus scanner/spyware blocker claimed to have closed a bunch of windows that the malware attempted to open. No EXEs, no open browser window, nothing.
The virus didn't delete anything or encrypt data, as it threatened to do, and was easy to get rid of. Perhaps I had an older less harmful version of it.
EDIT: Just checked, I had the FBI Moneypak virus. Which also claims to encrypt, but is different from Cryptlocker.
I got to see this particular virus up close at my work yesterday. Our IT department was fixing some computers for some clients who got hit by this. And by "fixing" I mean completely wiping and re-installing windows. It's the only solution with this one.
This virus finds all the networked drives and files it can, and encrypts them too. So, it really can impact a company network.
In this case, the client's voice mail system sends emails with an audio file each time the person gets a voice mail. This is fairly common. So, a secretary at the office got an email looking maybe somewhat (but not really) similar to their voice mail system's emails. It contained an attachment called "Voicemail.zip" which she downloaded and double clicked. Inside is an executable called "voicemail.exe" which, thanks to Window's stupid "hide known file type extensions" setting, she did not notice was an exe. She ran it and it fucked their whole company network. Luckily this company has nightly backups of all networked drives so their critical documents were saved.
Quote from: Snarky on Thu 24/10/2013 07:44:38
I'm wondering: If I use dropbox and get a virus on one machine, does that mean I need to assume it's spread to all the machines connected to my dropbox account?
If you have a drop box, it would encrypt all the files on that dropbox rendering them useless for all the machines who access that account. However, the encrypted files would not in-turn infect another box on that dropbox unless the .exe was also placed in the dropbox and it was opened on another machine.
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Thu 24/10/2013 12:56:16
I kind of hate having this attitude, but it is what it is:
If you're stupid enough to open an attachment blindly then not only do you deserve this (or any) virus, you deserve to have to [double] pay to get rid of it!
I hate you having this attitude too because even regardless of the arguable sentiment it doesn't cover the full picture. Are you not aware there are other infection vectors for getting viruses than running a binary somebody sent you in an email? This virus for instance is said to use Java vulnerabilities as one of the vectors (http://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1mizfx/proper_care_feeding_of_your_cryptolocker/). Is everyone who didn't disable Java in their browser an idiot who deserves to get their data wiped? For another example, earlier this year I got a virus because somebody had attacked Opera software's internal network and compromised the autoupdate mechanism of Opera browser (http://my.opera.com/securitygroup/blog/2013/06/26/opera-infrastructure-attack). Did I deserve this too, by... err... not predicting this exploit?..
Virtually any exploit in any software could be used to run malicious software on your computer. What's that? You have software on your computer that has at least 1 bug? Well, you must be stupid then and deserve viruses all over the place!
And even when addressing your original wrongly applied point, yes, generally speaking, people to a large extent deserve the consequences of their actions, including passive willful ignorance, but even if that applied to being wronged by others, saying somebody deserves to potentially have lots of their data wiped irreversibly with no chance of getting it back is way too harsh. It's like saying that every single instance of carelessness or naivety means you deserve to be instantly kidnapped by mad sadists and slowly tortured to death. But it doesn't apply, which brings us to another point, which is no one "deserves" to be wronged by malicious individuals by definition, no matter how naive or ignorant they are. Ignorant naive people deserve to be hurt by themselves and their own ignorance and wrongdoings, but not by others'.
Of course I'm aware there are other paths to being leveled by a virus. I never suggested there weren't.
My comment pointed out one particular way (the most common these days) to get a virus and I stand by, and will continue to do so, what I said. If you blindly open an email attachment you deserve what you get. Even if it comes from a "trusted" source you should check it before opening it. This is common sense (or should be) in 2013 (as it was in 1999).
I think you latched on to the sentiment of my statement but ignored what it actually said. If a person gets a virus because some idiot on their network blindly opened an email attachment then, obviously, they didn't deserve it. But they then earn the right to get out their pitchfork and go on an ogre hunt for the guilty party!
I didn't mean to offend you... can I offer you a drink or something?
Quote from: Vince Twelve on Thu 24/10/2013 14:14:42Quote from: Snarky on Thu 24/10/2013 07:44:38
I'm wondering: If I use dropbox and get a virus on one machine, does that mean I need to assume it's spread to all the machines connected to my dropbox account?
If you have a drop box, it would encrypt all the files on that dropbox rendering them useless for all the machines who access that account. However, the encrypted files would not in-turn infect another box on that dropbox unless the .exe was also placed in the dropbox and it was opened on another machine.
I use the online backup service CrashPlan which creates revisions of files being updated, so if all my files get encrypted and backed up in this state I can simply go back and revert to previous version after I've reinstalled my Windows machine. I have it backup my Dropbox folder as well in case something like this happens :)
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Fri 25/10/2013 02:52:59My comment pointed out one particular way (the most common these days) to get a virus and I stand by, and will continue to do so, what I said. If you blindly open an email attachment you deserve what you get. Even if it comes from a "trusted" source you should check it before opening it. This is common sense (or should be) in 2013 (as it was in 1999).
Oh, and no one actually deserves getting a virus as serious as this unless they are a pedophile or (in the eyes of corrupt/ignorant politicians and lawmakers these days) worse: a copyright infringer 8-0
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Fri 25/10/2013 02:52:59
Of course I'm aware there are other paths to being leveled by a virus. I never suggested there weren't.
Well, I stand corrected but in the context I'd say it was off a bit odd and misleading. We're talking about a virus that has the nastiest negative effects imaginable and isn't limited to email attachments but you're criticizing specifically the people who open attachments even though this doesn't affect only them. So y'know, I just made the wrong assumption from this. Assumptions are treacherous and the joke is on me I suppose.
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Fri 25/10/2013 02:52:59
I didn't mean to offend you... can I offer you a drink or something?
No, no offence, I just like
nitpicking arguing about subtle details. This (http://i.imgur.com/HqsNiGj.jpg) is my favourite style of conversation.
Quote from: David Ostman on Fri 25/10/2013 07:05:43
Oh, and no one actually deserves getting a virus as serious as this unless they are a pedophile or (in the eyes of corrupt/ignorant politicians and lawmakers these days) worse: a copyright infringer 8-0
Surely the latter deserve to be skinned alive? Those monsters!