SAN FRANCISCO: Marriage therapist Valerie Goss turned on her computer one day and found that all of her data was being held hostage.
Malicious code referred to as "ransomware" had encrypted her files and locked them away. Cyber criminals demanded $500 in hard-to-trace virtual currency Bitcoin to give her the key. The ransom would jump to $1,000 in Bitcoin if Goss took more than a day to pay.
"I felt shocked; like I had been robbed," the Northern California therapist said. "And, I felt pressed for time to make a rational decision. It felt so surreal."
After online research by her son revealed that in a quarter of more of ransomware cases victims never see their files again even if they pay, Goss refused to pay.
Instead, she bought a new computer and fortified it with security software. She also started backing up data off the machine.
As painful as it was, Goss did the right thing, according to cyber security specialists interviewed by AFP.
"Unfortunately, it is the right thing to do," said Malwarebytes chief executive Marcin Kleczynski.
"If you do pay the ransom, that money is gone and there is no guarantee you will get your data back."
Comments
Comments are closed.