By Emily Sweeney
One evening in July 2015, I was sitting at my desk in the Globe newsroom, working on a story, when suddenly a pop-up ad appeared on my computer. The box contained an ominous message. It said all of my files - videos, photos, documents, everything - had been encrypted. In order to get my stuff back, I'd have to pay hundreds of dollars to some anonymous hacker who weaseled this malware onto my computer.
I tried to close the pop-up, and opened up one of the folders on my desktop. I watched in horror as my files in that folder were encrypted, one by one. Within seconds, I could no longer open any of them. My laptop had been hijacked . . . by a "KEYHolder" ransomware virus.
***** Moderator's Note *****
I don't like ransomware any more than the next guy, and I don't often publish articles not directly related to telecom.
But, it's only a matter of time before these sorts of scams attack "smart" phones.
The article author makes some good points: first among them, to back up your data on both a local backup drive and in the cloud.
Bill Horne Moderator