NZ Police ransomware infections

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gareth41

742 posts

Ultimate Geek

#937409 19-Nov-2013 16:28

Gilco2: I was asked to clean a friends computer today. He is running XP and messages coming up that his files will be encrypted and locked by NZ Police for watching porn or something to that effect.
I never saw the message myself so unsure exact wording. Computer was still working but he said the message started Sunday.
I ran MSE and that was clear and ran malwarebytes which picked up 15 infections. I ran ccleaner as well. Also installed Firefox and adblocker. Everything else all updated.
Is that all i needed to do or will it still lock later

Check any documents/pictures etc... you may find they are encrypted. If none of them open properly or show garbage in msword then they are encrypted. In that case discard them and restore from latest backup if you have one, if not then your only option is to pay the ransom for the private key unless you have a surplus 1000+ years to brute force it.

Gilco2

1556 posts

Uber Geek

#937427 19-Nov-2013 17:00

He is a pastor and has no pictures. But he has all his sermons. Opened a few and they opened okay. He has backup hard drive bought from Bond and Bond when they were around and I cant remember brand but at the time after the inital setup it automatically backs up. Of course doesnt mean they are okay as virtually permanently connected. It scanned clear.
He has been on youtube a lot looking at Liberty News which is all against Obama and virtually calling him devil in sheeps clothing and a liar. Well we know thats true with most politicians anyway. But thats a different topic not for here. Just saying that what he is watching

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#937447 19-Nov-2013 17:31

Call me paranoid, but I don't bother trying to repair a system after a minor infection let alone something like this. I just grab anything critical and start again (either restore a backup or reinstall).

I always worry there's something lurking in the background. Like the odd one they find and say, "looks like it's been around for years".

Gilco2

1556 posts

Uber Geek

#937460 19-Nov-2013 18:14

I would have preferred to reinstall as I also wonder if something was left behind. I tried to get him to go to Windows 7 or even Linux Mint which would be ideal for what he does. Maybe after he sees Windows 8.1 he will upgrade to that. Next week he wants me to upgrade the Church's computer to Windows 8 from Vista. Unfortunately I have to use the 32 bit version as he still insists on using Word 2.0. I have tried and it does work on the 32 bit version of Windows 8. Now days I prefer to just use 64 bit version.
I guess I will find out over the next week if any of police virus is still there

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79295 posts

Uber Geek

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Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#937474 19-Nov-2013 19:02

andrewNZ: Call me paranoid, but I don't bother trying to repair a system after a minor infection let alone something like this. I just grab anything critical and start again (either restore a backup or reinstall).

That's the best course. If anything happens, reinstall fresh, restore data from backup, reinstall apps from original sources.

Gilco2

1556 posts

Uber Geek

#937478 19-Nov-2013 19:05

thats why I like a system image. Install Windows and programs I want and set up how I like, then create system image and if/when time comes there is a problem like police virus I can restore image in around 20 minutes. Then add the data from the external backups

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#937616 19-Nov-2013 23:01

Windows Home Server for me. Bare metal restore and I'm up and running in under 30 minutes

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MaxLV

656 posts

Ultimate Geek

#937628 19-Nov-2013 23:50

gareth41: How exactly are people getting infected with this? Ive had to remove this from several of our customers machines, but just cant work out how exactly they are being infected. Im assuming web servers emplying poor security are being compomised and used to carry this ransomware? Most of them have reported being in google image search.

Not infected, But decided I need some form of offline backup for my personal stuff (photo and music library, and the weekly image backups I do, and Windows File backups, etc)

Currently I have weekly and daily incremental backups to a Qnap 412 for all my systems, and have tested usb stick recovery media for each system.

For my Photos I also burn a monthly DVD of all the photo's taken in that month. My Music Library also is backed up on DVD.

I'm looking at getting one of these:

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=HDDSEA0443&name=Seagate-4TB-Expansion-Desktop-3.5-USB-3.0-External

Questions:

Do I really need it? (looking at offline storage for the system Image backups, Windows File Backups mostly)

Is anyone using one, or has experience of it?

Running Avast Internet and it is set to update hourly.

All my emails go through Pop Up Peeper, a text only online email viewer. Any I dont know about or dont trust get binned before downloading to Thunderbird.

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