^^^If you ever see this window and you don't have any backups, go in the corner of the room and cry!!

Up until recently most viruses were mainly just scare tactics not too terribly difficult to remove...at worse it would leave the operating system in an unusable state. This new infect in really no different in that regards the infection itself can be removed fairly quickly by a professional computer expert. However, unlike past ransom ware like fake anti-viruses or the FBI Warning Virus that disabled you're computer but didn't do damage to actual important documents and photos. This new virus 'cryptolocker' encrypts almost all user data. Office files, pdf, photos, financial data, etc. There is no way to decrypt these files without paying the ransom and getting the private key.

Worse still if your computer is part of a network and has access to shared drives those files will get encrypted as well....that also includes any backup drive that's attached to your computer rendering any backups useless.  

Here's a few things to prevent it:

1. Don't ever open files from e-mails you don't trust or just look 'strange' a strange website address with random numbers or symbols, a zip file especially if the e-mail purports to be from a bank, delivery company (ups fedex postal service), a bank, etc. None of these institutions are ever going to send you a zip file so right off that bat expect the file to be malicious.
2. Have off-site backup, I recommend backblaze for home users CLICK HERE it's very easy to sign up and install, there's no configuring needed.  For customers with servers please contact me to schedule an appointment to configure a off-site backup for your business.   GO NOW AND BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE YOU READ ANYMORE, NOW!!!
3. If you are infect and see the image above, as soon as you do pull the plug it's probably too late for your computer but you may save other computers on the network. 
4. Have an up-to-date antivirus and protection, a lot of techs disagree with me but I've liked Norton ever since they've rewritten their application a couple years back I run it on my machine.  If you get it just make sure you go into settings and then antivirus settings, turn boot protection to aggressive and sonar protection to aggressive. Buy Norton here http://amzn.to/1bwfpOH good for 3 computers.  It protects against all known variants but as always it's a cat and mouse game, should you run into a new variant before Norton has a chance to update well....you'll be restoring from the backup you've just made. 
5. Contact JRD Tech, we can setup software restrictions to prevent executable files from running in known locations this virus hides out in.

So what happens if you get infected and have no backup, should you pay the $300 ransom or however much it is depending on the variant? The concensus is that you should NOT pay since if these criminals don't make any money they might not bother with this sort of method in the future.  However, if this is your life on the computer, cherished memories or important financial or business information that you can't stand to lose then well you don't have much of a choice and from what I've read, paying does in fact decrypt the files. Of course if you do decide to pay the ransome please make sure to call a professional like JRD Tech to make sure the infection is completely erradicated so it doesn't decide to rear it's head a few weeks later and demand more money. 

Here's an awesome new tablet from Dell running the FULL version of Windows. This means you can run whatever software you have on your home desktop or laptop. http://amzn.to/17dUJWT

If anyone is looking for a good back to school laptop or just a nice new laptop for themselves I highly recommend you check out the Sony Viao line which is onsale at Amazon right now.   Any of of these models will be more than capable of getting the job done in terms of productivity but for price/performance and longevity I would recommend the models with the Core i5 it's Intel's mainstream cpu, of course if you wish you can also go for the Core i7 which is the cream of the crop, the price to performance ratio is a little bit lower than the i5 but it's faster overall.  

Save up to $80 on Sony Fit Series Laptops

The most important component of any computer is arguably the hard drive, this is where all your photos, documents, financial information, and other personal data is stored.  Now despite being the most important component, it's also the most unreliable of all the work I do fixing computers a failing or failed hard drive is one of the most common issues.  Sometimes I'm able to catch the hard drive failure before it's too late and get the data off with little trouble, other times it's too late and without a backup all data is lost.   Main reason hard drives aren't built like they use to is primarily to keep costs down. A GB of data 10yrs ago cost over $10.00, a GB of data today costs like then $0.10.  And what does this tell you, a hard drive 10-15yrs ago use to carry a 10yrs warranty, then it dropped to 5yrs, then 3yrs and now most hard drives carry a warranty of 1 to 2 years. With the exception of enterprise class hard drives which carry a 5 year warranty but also costs double what a standard consumer drive costs (worth it IMO).  

Regardless even if hard drives were built to last it's still a good idea to have a backup, in fact I would say it's more than a good idea. That's why I've tried to find the best online backup solution for my customers, and I've found it an unlimited online backup from Backblaze for $5 a month or less if you buy 1 or 2yrs in advanced.  Your data is secured with AES encryption and can be accessed anytime  you need it.  Even if your backing up to an external hard drive you should think about getting a cloud backup solution because 1. how often do you remember to plug it in to backup, 2. do you take the backup drive with you everytime you leave the house? If not the backup drive is succeptable to the same dangers. Your home can be burgularized, there can be a fire, or a flood making both your backup and computer hard drive useless.  
So follow the link or click the image and get your computer backed up today. 

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