The malware uses a well-established form of asymmetric encryption, which means it utilises two keys: a "public key" to encrypt the data, and a "private key" to decrypt it. Unless you have the key, you simply cannot unlock the data that is encrypted."
Ryan Rubin, MD of global risk consultancy Protiviti, agrees: "CryptoLocker has been designed to make money using well-known, publicly available cryptography algorithms that were developed by governments and other bodies. "I don't think anyone in the world could break the encryption," says Gavin O'Gorman, spokesman for internet security firm Symantec. If you don't have the latest security updates and anti-virus protection on your computer, all you would need to do is to visit a compromised website or click on a seemingly legitimate online advertisement.ĬryptoLocker currently only affects PCs and can easily be removed with anti-virus software, but its effects cannot.
#CRYPTO LOCKER EMAIL SOFTWARE#
The malicious software – CryptoLocker is technically not a virus, but a piece of software – can sneak into your machine via an email attachment or a "drive-by download", which you would not even be aware is taking place. I feel pretty silly now that I clicked on it, but the email didn't go to my junk mail folder and appeared genuine, with no spelling mistakes and a realistic email address." "I was expecting a dividend payment from Lloyds for some Halifax shares I had sold, so I wasn't surprised to see an email from The attachment appeared to be the receipt for the payment. She is furious she opened the attachment in the email, but says it is easy to be fooled. The money would go to criminals who have done this to me and will carry on doing it to others." "I wouldn't consider paying the ransom on principle. I had anti-virus software on there, but the laptop is 18 months old and it wasn't up-to-date," she says, adding that she is now contemplating buying an external hard-drive. "I am worried the criminals could steal my identity. That means any of your documents containing passwords or personal information, along with your photos and videos, could potentially be accessed by cyber-criminals – and although there is no evidence of encrypted files being uploaded or sold on for this purpose at the moment, it is theoretically possible.įlanders says she feels violated. What's more, while you will no longer be able open, read or view your files, anyone with the decryption key could easily do so. Similarly, all the files in shared network drives that were connected at the time of the attack could also become encrypted and inaccessible. Even if you had backed up your files, he says, if your back-up device was connected to your computer when CryptoLocker struck, you may not be able to recover them.
#CRYPTO LOCKER EMAIL PC#
"If you haven't got a backup and you get hit by CryptoLocker, you may as well have dropped your PC over the side of a bridge," says Paul Ducklin, security adviser for anti-virus software company Sophos. One version is cleverly hidden in an email complaint from a supposedly unhappy customer. Some suggest the malware is " on the rampage", with commercial organisations targeted as often as individuals. There is nothing new about ransomware – different forms of it have been circulating since as far back as 1989 – but in recent weeks internet security firms have reported a surge in computers affected.
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