Computer Hacked

[Bish]

Anyone else thought I had messed up all my daughter's pictures on your SD card we just found out our computers has been hacked they have a crypt everything on my computer and are asking for money to fix it, said if no response in 3 days all files would be lost we just took the computer to Best Buy to The Geek Squad to see if they could fix it watch your computer's guys, it was on our local news last night about this happening in our area. God bless

[Saddle Tramp]

Yep my step-son had it happen don't waste your money. He took his to a factory rep and they wiped it and factory reset it. Otherwise you will be paying again when ever they decide they want more money.

[Artos]

I had that happen but all the pics I cared about were already posted here or on my phone...even if they weren't, I don't pay ransom.

Sorry amigo. Hope you get them back. I'm not much of a pc guru and don't really have super important 411 on my pc. I recently got an i-mac for no specific reason other than to hopefully avoid some of this type noise.

[dustinztx]

Unfortunately with crytolocker you have 2 choices. Pay the fee or format the computer. Sorry about that happening.

[dustinztx]

Unfortunately with crytolocker you have 2 choices. Pay the fee or format the computer. Sorry about that happening.

[justletmein]

There's quite a few ways to decrypt your files, at least there were when this thing first started going around a few years ago and I successfully decrypted thousands from clients. The developers keep changing the code and getting better though so it's harder and harder. Google it up ("decrypt cryptolocker 2016") you may be able to salvage some stuff before you wipe your PC (wipe is recommended no matter what).

[DaveS903]

If you pay you may or may not get your data files back. Next time you get a scareware alert (Caution!!!! Your computer is infected!!!! Click here to remove this threat!!!! Blah blah blah), use your task manager to kill the window. Do not click ANYWHERE.

[brushtrooper]

If you pay you may or may not get your data files back. Next time you get a scareware alert (Caution!!!! Your computer is infected!!!! Click here to remove this threat!!!! Blah blah blah), use your task manager to kill the window. Do not click ANYWHERE.

^^^ this.
It happened to a co workers work computer. Company paid the fee and got everything back.....thats was 2 yrs or so ago. I had it happen to a brand new computer I just bought, literally. When I got home I booted it up and opened the games, boom locked up for 200.00 or something like that Took it back and got another one

[Bish]

GREAT NEWS, found a tech here in Sherman that was able to recover all my daughters pics and decrypt the computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God Bless
Bish.

[kry226]

GREAT NEWS, found a tech here in Sherman that was able to recover all my daughters pics and decrypt the computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God Bless
Bish.

Awesome! Now get an external hard drive and back up all your important docs and pics regularly. Next time you may not be so lucky, but if everything is backed up, all you need to do is reinstall the OS and you're back in business.

P.S. I highly encourage you and everyone else to keep sensitive information (PII) encrypted on your devices to help prevent identity theft. VeraCrypt is a good app that I've come across. YMMV.

[Storm]

Awesome! Now get an external hard drive and back up all your important docs and pics regularly. Next time you may not be so lucky, but if everything is backed up, all you need to do is reinstall the OS and you're back in business.

P.S. I highly encourage you and everyone else to keep sensitive information (PII) encrypted on your devices to help prevent identity theft. VeraCrypt is a good app that I've come across. YMMV.

I had an external as a backup but the it decided to kick the bucket and lost everything nonrecoverable

[TKK]

NEVER pay someone online to "fix" your computer - it is a total scam. Even if they fix it they will set it up to do it again down the road. Happened to me and I took mine to a local computer place - they fixed it and cleaned it.

Then I called the number that popped up on my screen - I used two phones at the same time and called the number over and over for an hour - I totally tied their phone lines up. I finally talked to the guy and asked him if he wanted me to quit calling and tying up their lines. He said yes. So I responded with "I can make that happen for $200"

[Tbar]

I had an external as a backup but the it decided to kick the bucket and lost everything nonrecoverable

I did too.....saved everything to it, nothing on the computer. Then it died.

Took the external hard drive to a company in Dallas that recovered the data for me.....it was expensive.....but no way I was loosing 12 years worth of pictures.

They told me these new external hard drives are only good for a couple of years and that I should back up to two external hard drives......as in "Copy and Paste."
Told me from their experience the bigger the external hard drive the less time it was good for. Sounded crazy to me but they told me that's why you can get a terabyte for $40.00 now. Anyway, I copy and paste to two different WD external hard drives now.....if one dies I have the other one. It was an expensive lesson.

[TKK]

also you can just store all pics from phone and PC to cloud - pretty simple