- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
You must log in or register to comment.
Digging customers out from this is quite literally what I do for a living. Issues aren’t always as simple as “don’t pay.”
The article seemed to be aimed at average desk workers. It didn’t contain any data or suggestions not commonly told in phishing tutorials offered by companies.
This is an entry level explanation of a highly complex problem. I would suggest you send it to your grandma or a blue collar friend who doesn’t work on computers.
I want to know -
- Do the kidnappers (I do not know the term) keep the promise?
- What happened after the paying the ransom money?
- What else are involved in addition to paying or not paying?
If they don’t uphold their promises, they can’t repeat the scam. I’ve dealt with the hackers and they’re better tech support than larger corps in many ways. They want you to be successful, in a weird way.
They’re dicks for doing it, but when your admin password is “1991mustang” for 16 years, maybe you deserve a lesson in security.
@nobsi@feddit.de is exactly right in their comments.
They will demand payment in cryptocurrency, usually bitcoin, which is untraceable. There’s no guarantee that they will really keep their word; since it’s completely anonymous, there’s nothing you can do. If you get infected, you just have to accept that your files are gone. The best thing you can do is backup while you still can.
Make sure some of your backups are kept offline (so that they won’t be encrypted along with everything else) and also test that they work regularly! Otherwise they might not do what you think they do.
