Got my computor back

37chief

Well-known Member
Location
California

A couple days ago I posted about someone was holding my computer hostage, and for 500.00 I could get my info back. I refused to pay these crooks one cent. After I got my computor back, some info was saved. I lost all my pictures. Here is a question. I still have this sight with pictures I have posted in the past. Is there a way to reinstall the pictures from the tractor discussion sight back into my picture folder. I was told I got this from opening an e mail attachment. It was worse than a virus, and could not be removed unless I paid. So be careful. Stan
 
(quoted from post at 08:41:11 10/24/14)
A couple days ago I posted about someone was holding my computer hostage, and for 500.00 I could get my info back. I refused to pay these crooks one cent. After I got my computor back, some info was saved. I lost all my pictures. Here is a question. I still have this sight with pictures I have posted in the past. Is there a way to reinstall the pictures from the tractor discussion sight back into my picture folder. I was told I got this from opening an e mail attachment. It was worse than a virus, and could not be removed unless I paid. So be careful. Stan

Sure. Just right click on the pic and then tell it where on your computer that you want to save it. You might make a new folder under your pics that you already have, to put these. It's very easy. Right click then click "copy". Then right click again and paste the image where you want it (folder on your computer).
 

I forgot to add that that same damn virus got me a few months ago and I reset my computer back to the "factory" status (lost lots of pics etc too). Really peezed me off. I am quite sure I would hang the idiot that puts out this virus crap if i could catch him/her. I think it came in on an email. McAfee protection did not catch it either.
 
Someone here at the college got hit with it when they downloaded a pic off the internet to use in a power point presentation.

The college has now done a major upgrade in our security protocols to protect against this.

Many of the anti-virus providers have looked at their attacks and the encryption is very sophisticated. It would be difficult to break the encryption.

Techie from the college said most of these people are in/from Russia and China. No surprise there.
 

..."Many of the anti-virus providers have looked at their attacks and the encryption is very sophisticated. It would be difficult to break the encryption. ..."

That is what I pay McAfee a paid subscription to do. They need to get off their duff and break the code on this and then feed it back to the bad guys. :twisted:
 
I agree, but from what I understand about this, these guys are very smart. As soon as the good guys broke the encryption, they would use a different one.
 
Since we got our first electronic camera I have saved every memory card I've used . All the pictures in my computer are also on these cards. I've heard that the pictures on the cards will deteriorate but it seems that the pictures in the computer would too. I also have the installation discs for windows that's on my computer and have used it a couple of times. I'm more worried about loosing my bookmarks than I am pictures. Does anybody know how I can save my bookmarks ?
 
You can export your bookmarks too a file and then copy the file to a flash drive. I do it all the time to put the exact same bookmarks in my other computers.
 
It's probably been close to a year since I've looked at Cryptolocker info (that's what this sounds like), nobody around here got it so I never paid much attention. I thought it was spread by an email attachment that looked like a pdf but wasn't? Might not be it.

If you have a gmail account and use Chrome, you can sign into Chrome and it will back up your bookmarks, passwords, etc. Firefox also has a Sync thing built in, create an account, and you need to save a key code, does about the same thing. If you have another computer in the house you can have more than one signed in, save bookmarks in one, they show up in the other, or get a new computer, just log in and you have all of that back. Don't use Internet Explorer if possible.

Backups, need to be careful if you have data caps with the online stuff of course. Carbonite and other paid services work ok. Dropbox is easy and gives a little bit of free data storage. Lots of others. Flickr.com has a lot of free room for photos and videos. Google has some too. In the other post about uploading photos, I mentioned the free program Google Picasa. Download and fairly easy to install, then tell it where your photos are if they are some place other than the usual picture folder. You can then sign into that program with a gmail account and it can automatically upload your photos (private or share with others). Also a decent basic photo editor, organizer, etc.

For computer backups, external hard drive with auto backups is about easiest. Flash drive a little bit. DVD works well and is fairly reliable, and not expensive. Blu rays hold a lot more, drives are around $50, discs aren't too bad. Optical discs like that are fading away though, people are using them less when they have unlimited Internet for movies and backup.

And if you get hit by a virus or your computer won't turn on, wouldn't hurt to have a Linux live disc around and know how to use it just in case. You don't have to install it, but you can start your computer from it and run directly off of the disk (cd/usb). This gets you to a desktop, you can do Internet with Firefox or Chrome or whatever is included depending which one you have. You can also plug in an external drive and copy off data from the drive that won't boot. You can then restart the computer, take the disc out, and it's exactly like it was, nothing on the drive changed.
 
Not to be a smarta$$, BUT......exactly how does one "be careful" about something that hit you out of the clear blue sky???????
Did you have any warning that there might be something harmful in that email? Were you immediately aware that an email carried malware?

I'll offer some constructive advice here:
First, get yourself a GOOD anti-virus/anti-malware program. Trend Micro's PC-cillin comes to mind. Norton also makes a good product along with several other software publishers.
Second, set up that program to scan ALL of your email as it is received.
Third, scan your system regularly for potentially damaging programs.
And lastly, add to that a secondary program like Malwarebytes anti-malware. Keep in mind that one single program alone will not necessarily catch every attempt to damage your system.

I might add that it would not serve you well to be too cheap about it. With many of the "free" programs, you get exactly what you paid for. Others claim to be free, but when it comes down to actually removing a virus or malware, you are again held hostage to pay out to make it work.
 
You can get your pictures back off of this board easy. just like gwstang said. Right click on the picture you want and then click on "save as" and put it back on your machine in the folder of your choice.

Greg
 

I did not get any warning when it got me. Just noticed the hard drive was working overtime with the h.d light flashing on and off and then a few days later...whamo! It has already encrypted the important data before it shows up as a popup wanting your $$$$ to unlock it. I reset my computer back to factory and then reloaded the pics/docs/bookmarks that I save every month or so for just such an emergency.
 
Had a few minutes this morning to look around, no wonder nobody got Cryptolocker around here, they stopped it a few months ago. They broke down the network and got all the keys, so people could get their data back for free.

There is a new one around that did a similar thing, so maybe that is what this one was. "CryptoWall". New infections of that have pretty much stopped according to the quick reading I did, around October 18th, but they say it will continue spreading by the other means. It infected banner ad advertisers (as well as email attachments for a while), so sites that displayed a banner ad that was infected, if the computer had a vulnerable browser, that's how it spread. All infected advertisers were stopped, which is why it stopped spreading that way.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/23/cryptowall_malvertising_outbreak/

So basically update your system and browser, don't use XP, avoid Internet Explorer (just because), install Adblock and noscript (which will stop many of the banner ads), disable Java as well as the other suggestions I and others had. Also, I knew and forgot to mention before, it does affect any connected drive, like external hard drives, so data on them would also be lost. Only safe things would be optical media that can't be rewritten on, and online backup that lets people restore previous versions (because if the files were locked on the computer, the locked files would automatically be updated on the backup service). Using Linux would also stop the risk for this type of thing (for free), as mentioned above, but I know that's not an option for a lot of you.

Some more details here and sites that displayed the bad advertising. The sites weren't infected, just the ads. http://www.proofpoint.com/threatinsight/posts/malware-in-ad-networks-infects-visitors-and-jeopardizes-brands.php
 
(quoted from post at 08:53:39 10/25/14) Had a few minutes this morning to look around, no wonder nobody got Cryptolocker around here, they stopped it a few months ago. They broke down the network and got all the keys, so people could get their data back for free.

There is a new one around that did a similar thing, so maybe that is what this one was. "CryptoWall". New infections of that have pretty much stopped according to the quick reading I did, around October 18th, but they say it will continue spreading by the other means. It infected banner ad advertisers (as well as email attachments for a while), so sites that displayed a banner ad that was infected, if the computer had a vulnerable browser, that's how it spread. All infected advertisers were stopped, which is why it stopped spreading that way.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/23/cryptowall_malvertising_outbreak/

So basically update your system and browser, don't use XP, avoid Internet Explorer (just because), install Adblock and noscript (which will stop many of the banner ads), disable Java as well as the other suggestions I and others had. Also, I knew and forgot to mention before, it does affect any connected drive, like external hard drives, so data on them would also be lost. Only safe things would be optical media that can't be rewritten on, and online backup that lets people restore previous versions (because if the files were locked on the computer, the locked files would automatically be updated on the backup service). Using Linux would also stop the risk for this type of thing (for free), as mentioned above, but I know that's not an option for a lot of you.

Some more details here and sites that displayed the bad advertising. The sites weren't infected, just the ads. http://www.proofpoint.com/threatinsight/posts/malware-in-ad-networks-infects-visitors-and-jeopardizes-brands.php

Disable Java? I thought half the systems on my outer ran off Java?
 
Couple articles I found with a quick search (maybe not the best). Lots more info out there of course.

http://www.howtogeek.com/198300/oracle-cant-secure-the-java-plug-in-so-why-is-it-still-enabled-by-default/

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/disable-java-computer,news-18042.html
 
(quoted from post at 22:14:54 10/24/14) Does anybody know how I can save my bookmarks ?

If you have a google account and use Google Chrome as a browser, Google stores your bookmarks in the "cloud" and they will be available on any other computer you use Chrome on after signing in. I don't store a a lot of important stuff (just) on the "cloud", but for something as trivial as bookmark it works well.
 
(quoted from post at 22:14:54 10/24/14) I'm more worried about loosing my bookmarks than I am pictures. Does anybody know how I can save my bookmarks ?

In addition to the signing in (which works really well), if you use Firefox there's this program. http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ You can google something like "how to mozbackup" for tutorials if needed. Or here is this http://kb.mozillazine.org/MozBackup I've used it a few times to move emails from Thunderbird and the settings from Firefox for a few people, it works well. It automates the manual file backup basically. The sync works better because it's always on and automatic, but if you don't want that then this isn't too bad, just copy the backup every once in a while to an external drive or something.

Firefox sync setup
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-set-up-firefox-sync

Chrome is a little easier because you just sign in with a gmail account as mentioned before.
 
(quoted from post at 16:41:11 10/24/14)
A couple days ago I posted about someone was holding my computer hostage, and for 500.00 I could get my info back. I refused to pay these crooks one cent. After I got my computor back, some info was saved. I lost all my pictures. Here is a question. I still have this sight with pictures I have posted in the past. Is there a way to reinstall the pictures from the tractor discussion sight back into my picture folder. I was told I got this from opening an e mail attachment. It was worse than a virus, and could not be removed unless I paid. So be careful. Stan
Now that your computer is in good working order, do yourself a favor and buy a backup hard drive and start doing regular backups. Next time you have a problem, and there will be a next time, you can restore your computer to working condition yourself.
It's routine maintenance, like changing your oil. You'll be glad you did.
 
(quoted from post at 16:49:16 10/25/14)
(quoted from post at 16:41:11 10/24/14)
A couple days ago I posted about someone was holding my computer hostage, and for 500.00 I could get my info back. I refused to pay these crooks one cent. After I got my computor back, some info was saved. I lost all my pictures. Here is a question. I still have this sight with pictures I have posted in the past. Is there a way to reinstall the pictures from the tractor discussion sight back into my picture folder. I was told I got this from opening an e mail attachment. It was worse than a virus, and could not be removed unless I paid. So be careful. Stan
Now that your computer is in good working order, do yourself a favor and buy a backup hard drive and start doing regular backups. Next time you have a problem, and there will be a next time, you can restore your computer to working condition yourself.
It's routine maintenance, like changing your oil. You'll be glad you did.

Just be aware the external HD's have a life expectancy of about 5 years. That's when mine died and I lost a lot of stuff.
 
(quoted from post at 12:59:20 10/26/14)
Just be aware the external HD's have a life expectancy of about 5 years. That's when mine died and I lost a lot of stuff.

They can quit at any time. They use the same type of drive as what's in a desktop (some drives don't have the same connector, some you can open the enclosure up and use the drive in your computer), and the smaller sized ones generally use the kind that's in a laptop. They can last for many years, and I've seen some last less than a month. More than one backup is the only safe way, which is why I like optical media plus cloud. Make a new disk every once in a while. I use blu-rays. I assemble my own desktops and the recorder is $50 (compared to about $15 for a plain DVD recorder), media is cheap, and they hold a nice amount compared to DVDs. Store a copy outside of the house in case of fire/something.
 
(quoted from post at 12:59:20 10/26/14)
(quoted from post at 16:49:16 10/25/14)
(quoted from post at 16:41:11 10/24/14)
A couple days ago I posted about someone was holding my computer hostage, and for 500.00 I could get my info back. I refused to pay these crooks one cent. After I got my computor back, some info was saved. I lost all my pictures. Here is a question. I still have this sight with pictures I have posted in the past. Is there a way to reinstall the pictures from the tractor discussion sight back into my picture folder. I was told I got this from opening an e mail attachment. It was worse than a virus, and could not be removed unless I paid. So be careful. Stan
Now that your computer is in good working order, do yourself a favor and buy a backup hard drive and start doing regular backups. Next time you have a problem, and there will be a next time, you can restore your computer to working condition yourself.
It's routine maintenance, like changing your oil. You'll be glad you did.

Just be aware the external HD's have a life expectancy of about 5 years. That's when mine died and I lost a lot of stuff.
True,but if you are doing true backups, your lost data would have still been on your computers hard drive. Unlikely that both would fail at the exact same time. If you have something you really don't want to lose, a third copy should be off site in case of fire or theft.
 

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