CryptoWall

[stomachmonkey]

Back up often.

Keep your malware up to date.

Be smart.

Be safe.

Bit of a read but important to know it's out there.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/opinion/sunday/how-my-mom-got-hacked.html?_r=0

[stealthn]

Agreed,

My sons got laptops for Christmas, boxing day one got a virus. Luckily I made them both wait until I have them all setup and secured - and Symantec save the infection.

I thought it was tough instructing my Dad on how to use a Mac, teaching Kids PC's is even tougher....

[red-beard]

Backup software etc, is built into Windows. Every PC I own and control have automatic backup run no less than once per week.

[M.D. Holloway]

why I got a Mac...

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

why I got a Mac...

It's the kind of exploit that will come in as a Trojan.

Typically it will be a zip file attached to an email.

It's not a self executing/replicating virus, it's an application and if you authorize it to run you'll be screwed.

Make sure in System Prefs->Security, you have allow installations only from the App Store and identified developers checked off.

The other common delivery form is as a fake Flash Player Update.

[biosurfer1]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

why I got a Mac...

clearly you didn't read the article

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

why I got a Mac...

Mac Viruses and Threats | Kaspersky Lab

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally Posted by biosurfer1

clearly you didn't read the article

hmmm....ok

Although CryptoWall has primarily affected Windows computers and Android cellphones so far, there is no technological barrier that prevents the virus from infiltrating Macs like mine. And when it does, Mr. Wisniewski chuckled, I should expect the ransom to be a lot higher.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

hmmm....ok

The author is misleading.

It's not a virus.

Trojans are not the same as viruses.

Writing a true virus for OSX is exceptionally difficult and even if one can pull it off the probability that it will spread or even cause more than minor inconvenience is pretty high.

Trojans will work on any operating system because they take advantage of low hanging fruit.

It's like that time you were at the bar and your friend took home that really hot chick that was coming onto him but he failed to notice the adams apple before it was too late.

[Z-man]

Backing up my data now...

Fortunately, I don't have admin rights on my work PC, which helps prevent lots of torjans and viruses from affecting my machine. And consequently, our work network is less prone to be hit with a wide-scale trojan or virus stemming from an infected PC on the network.

My home PC is a MAC - and Mrs. Z and I are careful with emails and such, and we do regular time machine backups.

Having at least monthly backups of your data is vital, and these days, with cheap and fast external hard drives and even raided storage arrays, there is really no excuse...

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

It's like that time you were at the bar and your friend took home that really hot chick that was coming onto him but he failed to notice the adams apple before it was too late.

Queue the theme song from The Crying Game...

[slodave]

Ran across the fake Adobe Flash update earlier this evening while cleaning a clients PC.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Adobe flash is probably the single worst security vulnerability anyone can put on a computer. Simply awful pig piece of software. I truly hate it and block 99.9% of flash content on web sites anyway (click to flash plug-in gets rid of a lot of the dumb ads, embedded video junk, dancing clowns and other silly bandwidth suckers, no to mention potential security issues). The constant need to install updates ((like once or twice a week) underscores how vulnerable it is.

Of course most people want it for their web porn viewing though...

Isn't there suspicion that anti-virus companies (Kaspersky in particular) are paying hackers to create new viruses and malware programs simply to force people to buy their software kind of like a digital protection racket where the mob boss is paying the thugs and the gangsters who fight them / run them off? I recall reading something about that recently (and frankly it seems quite plausible to me).

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Z-man

Having at least monthly backups of your data is vital, and these days, with cheap and fast external hard drives and even raided storage arrays, there is really no excuse...

Z, I think that monthly is not enough. I have the PCs backup on a weekly basis, automatically, including home PCs. Even without virus/Trojan issues, hard disk drives fail.

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Z, I think that monthly is not enough. I have the PCs backup on a weekly basis, automatically, including home PCs. Even without virus/Trojan issues, hard disk drives fail.

It all depends on how the PC is being used, and how risk adverse you are. IF you are updating a lot of files on a daily basis, then even weekly may not be sufficient.

Apple's Time Machine backup program pretty much covers it - it applies incremental backups based on whether or not the change bit is set on files. It has a slick GUI interface, and allows the user to recover one or all files from any given moment in time.

An effective backup regimen will help you recover your lost files, but it will not prevent viruses and Trojans from doing malicious things to your machine, and the recovery isn't always quick and easy.

-Z-man.

[Brando]

Originally Posted by Z-man

An effective backup regimen will help you recover your lost files, but it will not prevent viruses and Trojans from doing malicious things to your machine, and the recovery isn't always quick and easy.

-Z-man.

Agreed. And even then, what happens when you backup the encrypted files - before getting a key?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Brando

Agreed. And even then, what happens when you backup the encrypted files - before getting a key?

Well the idea is you don't have any or at least enough hosed files that you need to worry about paying for the key.

As long as you are running incremental snapshot backups and not just a full dump and replace every time you should be able to find the last clean version of a given file.

[biosurfer1]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

hmmm....ok

there is no technological barrier that prevents the virus from infiltrating Macs like mine

so what difference does you buying a mac make?

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Well the idea is you don't have any or at least enough hosed files that you need to worry about paying for the key.

As long as you are running incremental snapshot backups and not just a full dump and replace every time you should be able to find the last clean version of a given file.

We backup to a NAS and I have it set to manually delete the old backups. I will go in and clean out the older backups every few months or if the file server is getting full. Plus, I have a clean backup of every machine on a USB hard disk from the day I put them into service.

Don't get me started on the NAS RAID level, internal backups and the off site copies of the essential files...

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by red-beard

We backup to a NAS and I have it set to manually delete the old backups. I will go in and clean out the older backups every few months or if the file server is getting full. Plus, I have a clean backup of every machine on a USB hard disk from the day I put them into service.

Don't get me started on the NAS RAID level, internal backups and the off site copies of the essential files...

Part of my problem. I currently have 7 drives hanging off my main box. 6 are 500 gb to 1 TB.

Then there is the RAID, running level 5 consisting of 8 2 TB drives.

I've got nearly 20 TB hanging off this thing and I'm currently trying to figure out how to back the whole thing up.

The single drives do back up to the RAID but I've got data on the RAID that is not backed up anywhere.

Been seriously thinking going old school and getting a tape drive.

Then I come to my senses.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by biosurfer1

there is no technological barrier that prevents the virus from infiltrating Macs like mine

so what difference does you buying a mac make?

Like I said before, I have an issue with the way the author worded that.

It's not correct.

This exploit is not a virus.

It's a Trojan.

They are very different.