How My Mom Got Hacked

Post by ecopoesis » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:16 PM UTC

Sir_Substance wrote: post #11

venomsnake wrote: post #8

And that is why I have the "if you don't have backup, I won't bother to help you with your lost files" policy when friend or family come crying. I make only one exception from this rule. Cryptolocker is not the problem. The lack of reliable backup is. 15 years into the internet age, and 5 into the cloud you have no excuse.

I would genuinely rather lose all my critical data to cryptolocker than put it in the cloud. Given a choice between my data being accessible by no-one or everyone, I will pick no-one every time. Data in the cloud /is/ available to everyone that matters. I'd also like to remind you that it can be impractical to back up some forms of data, especially in the cloud. High definition video (weddings, funerals, holidays) is…

Post by boracay » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:45 PM UTC

ColinWright wrote: post #13

So the title is "How My Mom Got Hacked" and the only thing it actually says about that actual title is: The virus is thought to infiltrate your computer when you click on a legitimate-looking attachment or through existing malware lurking on your hard drive, ... So, there's really nothing about how his mom got hacked. Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting article, interesting to read about the process that ensues o…

Post by jarcane » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:52 PM UTC

andrewchambers wrote: post #35

jarcane wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're right: People are not afraid of computers anymore, and when they are, it's in all the wrong ways. When I was younger the internet terrified people. I learned all kinds of simple "don'ts" in the 90s that it seems all got completely forgotten within a decade and now no-one learns anything anymore. I didn't even use my real name online until a couple of years ago. It was like the first rule of the interne…

The point of services like last pass is that a website with shitty security won't compromise all your accounts on websites with decent security. The point is you only trust one security specialist company rather than many non security specialist companies. It's getting to the point where if you don't use something like lastpass, then reusing passwords to some extent is needed - or do you remember 20 different passwor…

Post by boracay » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 3:02 PM UTC

sp4ke wrote: post #31

BorisMelnik wrote: post #3

This may sound cliche, but ransomeware truly is plaguing the nation. 3 "phone room" busts here where I live in the last month or so, all of which were the "tech support" hot lines that you called into after you've paid the ransom to "fix your PC." sure, there are many different levels of extortion. Some outfits are very upfront i.e. "your PC has been locked..." others are much more subtle and appear to come across as…

The problem is not the ransomware neither the criminals ... it's the way internet/computer users became completely unaware of what they are using and blindly trusting everything. Think of this as a natural balance to the ridiculously insecure internet and people's tech culture. If we are all going to live in a world where we use internet and technologies everyday, we should have a minimum of knowledge on how it works…

Post by headShrinker » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 3:19 PM UTC

gringe wrote: post #28

joosters wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any complications or deep thinking required before pointing fingers. It's the criminals who are to blame. No amount of educating end users will magically fix these kind of attacks, whether or not people write articles about their ransom payments.

I beg to disagree. If you effectively made everyone realize that not paying utterly destroys the extortionist's business model, that does "magically fix these kinds of attacks" overnight. Not that I'm saying educating people about this is practical or even possible. One thing that I think is destructive though is "blaming the criminals", since a) we don't even know who they are, b) their business model depends entire…