Herb, that is a clear truth and has been since 2006. It reminds me of Madisons and Jeffersons positions before the War of 1812, and how desperate they got when confronted with it. Especially Madison, who made a whole lot of bad decisions with no knowledge of the facts, especially in the Great Lakes/Canada front. And the Obamanation is no Madison...not even a Hoover...

Nick:
The current administration's anti military attitude allows anything to happen, especially in the Middle East. It's as if the adults have all left the playground.

I am not familiar with that one, but usually they are very specific about the ransom, that being the whole point of it. I thought I posted an article where a ransom dude actually went out of his way to detail exactly what people had to do to both pay, and then fix their machines, because he felt sorry for them. One guy took the liberty to use it to find a way to out hack him and offered the fix for free. I liked that idea.

Daddy doesn't even know where the ransom note is, and I can't find it. Can you imagine? The ransom note is missing? However he definitely has the Tesla Virus.

Well, you could just tell dad to pay up? But I am all for a team that can track them down and I am also ok with "removing the threat" as they say. I do not mean taking their computers away either. It is time there are some serious consequences to such acts, as well as protect free use of technology not hampered by pirates. This goes back to the 1600-1800 period when you could hunt down pirates and after disposing of them, keep the loot. You never hear of any cases against them, or successful breaking of groups, except the odd victory when a company provides the incompetent government it all on a platter. Actually, that might be a good book idea, sort of like a Tom Clancy novel.

Actually, I think most of it is pirated or stolen. There is a show on science channel called "What on Earth?" about the stuff they find with satellites. One thing found was a F117 in China, which they decided was a complete mock up to test their newest stolen radar equipment against to be able to detect it, and the Defense Dept just said "what?"

Hello Nickursis,
Yes, the Constitution allows for "Letters of Marque" (Article 1, Sec.8). Thoritsu is right.
It is high time we brought them back.
Regards,
O.A.

Or importing technology from Elbonia.

I'm kind of teasing of course, but a key in this and many distanced offenses is the lack of immediate and apparent consequences. Long-term, the police can track them, and find them, and prosecute them for hundreds of thousands of dollars and over a long time, with a requisite burden of proof and entrapment rules that make the consequences a foggy specter rather than a harsh reality. The same is true for the behavior of people while driving, or even the aggressive comments on a forum or tweet. People would not say some of the things they write in person. These guys are similar.

Just imagine the response when three 6'4" marines showed up at the home of the pimply twenty-something hackers, without the cops.

My father in law just got a ransom virus, and I am going to have to wipe his machine. He is a highly irresponsible web surfer though. The worst nightmare for a technically oriented son in law, with a family of non-technical children (doctors, lawyers, nurses).

I just got one of their 1500va ones from amazon, because all of mine are usually APC, but they have gone out the roof on price. They will save your bacon for sure...

Thanks. We are using macs but I think I get the idea and can do a similar thing with them

mine is a cyberpower 1000VA -- it works! . our power
goes out more often, usually because trees have fallen
onto the lines. -- j
.

Ohhh..especially if you are on and it goes, PCs love to scramble their brains in those. I use 2 1000VA UPS's for my PC, as I lose power 2-5 times a year.

Get a USB hard drive enclsure and a drive big enough to image your own. Set it to incremental backup (Win can do that, but there are better options), and make sure you disconnect the cable. Also, depending on your connection a thing like Carbonite, on many of the reputable companies can also be cost effective. Also, you can have a drive hooked up and move all your data files, pictures etc to it, and use it ongoing, and then just have the OS and programs on the C drive. That way, you fire it up, check it out, then hook up your other drive, do your thing and shutdown. As long as you disconnect the cable, even if you fire up and have this issue, it only means you have to reformat and reinstall your OS.

"They hide in the Ukraine and in Russia and other lawless places. " Look at the article I just posted, showing the connections with Russia's money funnel bank and the Podesta Brothers lobby firm. Since they are behind HillaryBeast, the lines all tie together to show they are all in concert on this mess. Our own political system is allowing this to happen. More reason to toss all of them out and start over.

You are correct, OA, it is their job. Like most else they get involved in, they seem to have their own agenda, and what they should rightfully be doing is not on it. There have been some suggestions for our own use put forth here, and I hope fellow Gulchers look at their stuff and use them. I also like the idea Thoritsu has of a Mercenary capability: Make it legal to hunt these guys down, and all their seized assets go to both the mercenary group and restitution.

Herb, as ewv says, there is no real "targeting system", just exposure to well concealed bait. A lot of it is so concealed, you can't help but feel sorry for anyone who gets caught, but you have done the right thing. If enough people used a secure, separated backup, and corporations and govt installed restrictions and good firewall defenses, these guys would have to go back to junking cars in Moldova.

Now that sounds like a good idea.

yes, and when the power goes out, I can rest easy! -- j
.

I did not see that as an issue. The content was trying to make it "interesting" to something most people yawn at. Until they get hit. The school should have had a much tighter security system, as well as restricted privileges for sure

The from address today is meaningless. I have more spam crap show up not only from me, but from people I have known through social sites. Another reason why security should get a much higher value assigned to it on all sources.

I am not sure, but my guess is they can hit even Linux systems, since it is just encrypting the files, not changing them. If the base program is Win, then as long as you are not emulating, you should be ok.

I am not sure, but my guess is they can hit even Linux systems, since it is just encrypting the files, not changing them. If the base program is Win, then as long as you are not emulating, you should be ok.

Duh. Really? If I had to pay a grand for my information, I would have put it in the Fort Knox equivalent after that. Good grief...

"NSA and the FBI are more interested in breaking our security and exploiting vulnerabilities that they find rather than alerting people to vulnerabilities when found and protecting citizens from attacks"

Exactly my point. They could turn those resources to more useful, protective pursuits more in line with what government should be doing.