Unfortunately there is a new incarnation of the original Cryptolocker virus doing the rounds. It even nastier than ever so we’d suggest following some of our suggestions below.
If you get the following screen (or similar), unfortunately it’s too late – all your files would have already been encrypted (see above link) and in most cases unrecoverable. You’d need to turn to your back up if you have one.
But for most of us lucky ones, it’s better to not get infected in the first place. The virus comes along in the form of an email with a ZIP attachment. So be very wary about opening any attachments you don’t trust. Make sure your virus protection is up to date. We’d suggest also suggest running the Premium version of Malwarebytes alongside your general anti-virus. Also it’s crucial you have a backup of your machine – ideally you’ll want a backup that takes a snapshot at a regular interval.
The above steps in most cases should be enough safety precautions but if you want to take your protection a step further there is a free utility that specifically prevents you from picking up the virus called CryptoPrevent. We’ve not tried this but it is well-regarded.
