Email from Companies House?: Motoring Computer Related forum

Computer Related > Email from Companies House?	Computing Issues
Thread Author: Ambo	Replies: 5

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Fri 25 Oct 13 09:50

Email from Companies House? - Ambo

Or UPS or DHL, with the title "Parcel Collection?" If so, it probably contains a virus called CryptoLocker.

Under the heading "Worst virus I've ever seen", the man who built, installed and has serviced my computer says in an email "I saw a customer today who had the worst virus I've ever encountered..." Apparently it encrypts all documents and photos, then shows a message demanding money to de-crypt them. Responding would doubtless lead to further problems but there appears to be no other remedy.

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Fri 25 Oct 13 09:57

Email from Companies House? - Zero

"I saw a customer today who had the worst virus I've ever encountered..."

Is a direct quote from this months Sophos (AV makers) resellers kit. They are having a year end sales blitz.

This bit locker threat has been around for some time, and the .exe for bitlocker is blocked by most up to date AV installs.

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Fri 25 Oct 13 16:33

Email from Companies House? - Ambo

>>Is a direct quote from this months Sophos (AV makers) resellers kit.

Hmn. However, he has always seemed an honest man and he has just told me over the phone that he has, in fact, spoken to another client whose computer is infected with the virus.

He tells me MSE won't tackle it. Are you referring to the free version of AV? Otherwise, I think I will revert to (paid) Norton.

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Fri 25 Oct 13 17:57

Email from Companies House? - Zero

All I am saying is that those exact words were contained in a sophos marketing kit to its resellers earlier this month, this virus payload has been around for at least three years, and MSE will stop it with a warning if you try to open the exe.

And there is the key, you have to open the virus to execute it. It has a title of something.pdf, but does not appear with a PDF style icon (big clue that)

Last edited by: Zero on Fri 25 Oct 13 at 17:59

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Fri 25 Oct 13 18:06

Email from Companies House? - rtj70

Sometimes you have to wonder if Windows as an operating system is simply too complicated for many. The same could be said of Android - mother in law would have been better with an iPad but didn't want to pay for a 9.7" iPad like I recommended and an iPad Mini was too small... but I digress.

I won't say Apple OS X is for the non technical either - it's based on BSD and is a full blown Unix operating system with a nice interface on top. If/when it goes wrong it will be as complex to figure out.

Take for example the move to SMB2 for default file access in OS X Mavericks. I now realise this won't connect to my Android phone using DroidNAS.... I'll have to tweak something or use something other than DroidNAS (AirDroid is nice but DroidNAS made it appear as a network drive advertised via Bonjour).

Back to your comment - opening a file that is an EXE pretending to be say a PDF because of an extension (with the .EXE hidden by default so the file is really file.PDF.EXE).... have to be naive or not technical to fall for that and as Z says the likes of MSE will catch this.

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Sat 26 Oct 13 12:22

Email from Companies House? - Ambo

My "Hmn" was not a reference to what you said, Zero, but to express doubts over my supplier.

>> simply too complicated

I think that applies to the whole of IT. Surely they should have got it right by now?

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