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World TOP Headlines: => Latest Security News & Alerts => Topic started by: Amker on 15. August 2007., 22:26:19

Title: Small Virus, High Price
Post by: Amker on 15. August 2007., 22:26:19
Every user, at least once in his entire life, was prompted by his anti-virus that said it deleted some trojan. If this didn't happen to you, you probably heard it happened to your friend or some relative. This type of virus 
is probably one of the most common and one of the less dangerous threats… until now,  anyway.

A new type of trojan has emerged from the Internet, and this one is a real threat. It encrypts all of the files on your PC, using a certain code that normal operating systems can't read. It also places several "readme" files on the user's machine. If the user should open the file, he or she would notice that it asks for a sort of ransom.

As Newsweek reports, the body of the .txt file reads: "Hello, your files are encrypted with RSA-4096 algorithm. To decrypt your files you need to buy our software. The price is $300 ... To buy our software please contact us ". Paying the price to save the data may come to some as a better solution than formatting, but it is not recommended since you can never know if they will really provide the decrypting software, or if that will eventually work.

One of the best things you can do is to protect your machine and your data by using an up-to-date anti-virus. It will probably be cheaper and it will keep you out of trouble. Below is a list of prices on anti-viruses (the latest versions): NOD 32 – 55,53 $ / Norton AntiVirus – 39.95 $ / Kaspersky AntiVirus - 39.95 $ / BitDefender –24.95$.

It is certainly better to keep your computer guarded against all threats rather than having such an unpleasant surprise. All security experts agree that computers that are connected to the Internet should be protected by an anti-virus.
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