The evil-doers will often try to make you click a link that looks familiar (instead of its or some other variant) that leads to a fake website or the installer for the virus. Viruses and malware from randomly clicking links in emails is probably the top way people get infected.Very careful examine links sent to you via email, even if it’s from someone you know: Don’t just click the link/boxes to make them go away, read them first. If a website was compromised, it may send you links to click that will install malware on your computer.There are a few ways to help protect you against this however:ĭon’t click any link that presents itself to you:

Reports have been published saying even if you do pay up the $300 they request, their decryption programing sometimes doesn’t work. You cannot remove it like a normal virus without losing all the files it encrypted putting you in a lose/lose situation. Sadly, there isn’t much you can do once you receive this malware. It gives you around 3 days to pay up or it deletes their side of the encryption key. If you receive this malware it will scan every drive on your PC (hard drives, flash drives and even network shares) for various file types that are usually user created materials (pdf/word docs/excel/pictures/etc) and encrypt them leaving you with nothing but a notice about the foul act it performed (see below). Similar to the same technologies that keep us safe while purchasing products online or using online banking, Cryptolocker has employed them to encrypt all your files and take you hostage.

What makes Cryptolocker so potent is its sound use of cryptographic techniques. It is currently being spread via an email attachment. Cryptolocker is a form of ransomware: software that locks you out of something until you give it what it wants (usually money). There’s new malware out in the wild now and it’s one of the nastiest ever created.

Malwarebytes crypto locker