Whitwick & District U3A - Computing tip August 2014
At the end of last month's tip was the usual "witches' warning" about a few basic precautions, namely:
- Make sure you are applying updates
- Keep your antivirus up to date
- Be very wary of links and attachments in emails, even if they appear to be from someone you know
Apart from the fact that this is always a sensible approach, there does seem to be a fresh spate of dubious emails which contain some very nasty attachments. In particular one which encrypts most of your data files so that you cannot access them. You are then asked for "Ransom money" to unlock them - it is not at all clear that paying the ransom will actually unlock your files either.
This means that as well as taking the precautions listed above, it is also wise to make regular backups of your important data. If you do get infected be aware that some forms of this ransomware can infect USB sticks and USB drives, so make sure that you do not connect your backup to recover your data until after you have got rid of the infection.
Don't think it couldn't happen to you. A member of Charnwood U3A recently reported an attempted infection via staff at a software company !
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