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Quote: if you have a backup, you probably won't need it
Yup! And having full backups takes fear out of the equation, doesn't it? Knowing you can recover from an attack gives you peace of mind, even if it never happens. 
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Some of the latest viruses put out by the NSA implant themselves into the firmware of hard drives or bios, so that the machine is ruined. You cannot do a restore and expect to be rid of the virus.
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I get a few dozen of these every day.
"Past due bill"
"Invoice Payment"
"Fax sent"
etc, etc...
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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I only get these via one of my email accounts - the one with a bcs.org address. I would have hoped that the BCS (British Computer Society) would have been sufficiently computer savvy to host their emails on a server with decent spam filters.
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Don't worry. Letting windows update own your computer and rule your life will solve all your problems.
Oh, wait...
No it won't. It'll just "fix" things that work.
The best process security and peace of mind is, and has always been, "don't do anything stupid".
If you use Outlook (the MS Office version), one trick is to drop suspect files into the "Junk E-mail" folder before opening them. That disables anything that could do a nasty.
But I prefer the "If in doubt, delete" method. Failing to open a genuine e-mail will not add or remove a second to or from your lifespan.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Quote: But I prefer the "If in doubt, delete" method.
Precisely! Same here. But maintaining good backups does not hurt. Ransom viruses are also spread by hacked "good" websites. There is always the risk of visiting a supposedly safe website that has been hacked.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Cornelius Henning wrote: Ransom viruses are also spread by hacked "good" websites.
This is the exact reason why I typically use Firefox with NoScript and AdBlockPlus (extended with my own personal filters). It has made the internet a pretty spartan place and there are some websites that don't even load anymore but I consider any website that will not fulfill its basic purpose without scripts or linking to 12 other sites as poor web design and not worth my time (and by basic purpose, I mean displaying information). If I need the full capabilities of a website, I turn on what is needed or switch over to Chrome. The end result is that I have ultimate control of what web content is allowed to run on my PC.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Quote: It has made the internet a pretty spartan place
This is so unnecessary! See this thread:
The Lounge - CodeProject[^]
Especially the item by John Simmons on HOSTS files.
Shameless plug: Also see my article about surviving the Ransom Virus.
If you are properly prepared, you can surf the Internet without fear. 
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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I am in total agreement with that. All that unnecessary junk steals my bandwidth even if my browser settings block it from being rendered. If I may also play devils advocate, I also understand that many websites depend on advertisements to supply their operating capital BUT the broad spectrum tactics that most ad services utilize, showing you a million ads in hope that you click one, is reliant on quantity and not quality. In my opinion, one or two high-quality, content-targeted ads per page is more than enough. Three dozen ads trying to sell me the latest pharmaceutical product or another product that I have no need for is a waste of money on both ends and does the advertising industry a disservice.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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But why worry?
If your own, personal files (which are a tiny proportion of the files on your PC) and your configuration details for various programs (which don't amount to five beans' worth of disc space) are saved to other locations, then all you lose is an OS -- and I'd be quite happy to lose any OS higher than Win 7.
Just use another machine while the "attacked" one is getting everything reinstalled and copied over, and you haven't lost a peanut.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark,
When I am attacked by Ransomware, it takes me less than 10 minutes to totally recover and clear my computer of the virus. (It has happened 3 times.) If data files are corrupted by the virus, add the time to overwrite the corrupted files from a backup that was disconnected at the time of the attack. Can you beat that? If yes: I would love to hear how!
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Are you backing up to a NAS?
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Quote: Are you backing up to a NAS?
Nooooo!
A Ransom virus will encrypt all files on the network, especially files in servers or a NAS! Look what happened to the hospital in LA, who was forced to pay $17,000 to have files on their network unencrypted. You need to back up to an "air gap" device, that is only briefly connected to the network while the backup is being saved. That applies to backing up data files, as well as system drive images that are vital in case of an attack.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Air gap backups seem like a lot of trouble for my home since there really isn't much there that I couldn't go without and now they have malware designed to target 'air gapped' computers (Microtrend article). I guess the only way to prevent such attacks is not to become a target.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Quote: I guess the only way to prevent such attacks is not to become a target
Obviously the choice is yours. Good luck
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Unfortunately, C, I can't give you timing data, because I've never been daft enough to get infected in the first place!
[Ambles away, whistling the theme to Goldfinger)
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Quote: I've never been daft enough
Mark, Innocent websites that you trust may become infected through hacking. If you browse to such a trusted website, are your prepared for the consequences?
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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You'd probably be surprised at how few sites I visit (on my own machines -- on work machines, who gives a banana?. I mean, the Interwebs are only useful for knowledge that you don't already have, and that's mostly a curiosity thing (and curiosity kills computers)
The people who get hit by these viri are mostly facebookers and twatters. The rest of us aren't so dumb, so the scare stories don't apply to us.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: Just use another machine while the "attacked" one is getting everything reinstalled and copied over, and you haven't lost a peanut.
This is an option at work but I only have one computer at home (and I've hand built the thing into a real monster). Since I really don't like being without a computer at home or have to wait for my work PC to be re-imaged, I take a few extra steps to prevent my machines from being infected due to someone else's unwillingness to filter their advertising content before presenting it to me. I know that this approach only filters out all the 3rd party ads and any ads 'native' to the website are still displayed.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Hell, you can save everything important to one or more SD cards or memory sticks.
These attackers can't follow back-up trails and locations, especially if it involves removable media.
Look carefully at what it is that makes your computer to be Your Computer, and get a back-up program to back it up while you're sleeping.
Formatting a drive and re-installing stuff is no great hardship. It's losing what's your own that's a pain, but that's easy to protect against.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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That's a good point. 64GB or higher flash drives are relatively inexpensive and you can plug them into one of the mobo's usb ports. I could easily fit local files onto one. I don't think ransomeware encrypts executable files or libraries yet so no need to back those up. Heck, I could just write a program myself to perform the backup.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Re-imaging your systems drive may take 10 minutes and will completely get rid of the virus if done right. How does that compare with the time to re-install an entire operating system and all apps?
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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True, but re-imaging requires constant updates that consume actual resources every day (and quite a lot of them), for the few files that you actually need to be backed up. Its only advantage is that it backs up the OS.
Not giving a damn about the OS allows you to back-up a comparatively tiny amount of files, which consumes only petty system resources.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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For me, re-imaging is the way to go. However, I can do it in my sleep, so I don't see it as much of an obstacle. If you ever have a few spare moments, download and try imaging software like Macrium's Reflect or AOEMI Backupper Standard (all free). And see what it's all about. Good Luck! 
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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The old Yahoo web client used to show the contents of a link when the mouse pointer was hovered over it. Very useful for spottig fake addresses. Sadly that doesn't seem to exist anymore.
I may not last forever but the mess I leave behind certainly will.
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