Uncategorized

New Malware Encrypts Your Files For Ransom

Posted on by josh

cryptolocker1

I just learned about a new RansomWare package that is going around called CryptoLocker.  This piece of malware, once installed on a system, will immediately begin to encrypt all of the personal files using a high-level encryption algorithm and a private key needed for decryption.  The private key, according to the software, is stored on a private server somewhere.  The only way to obtain your private decryption key and get your data back is to pay a $300 ransom within 72 hours.  There is a countdown on the left side of the window.  After 72 hours, your private key is destroyed from the server. There is also a warning not to tamper with or remove the software as your key will be immediately destroyed.

Continue reading →

Browse The Internet Safer/Tips from Josh

Posted on by josh

The internet has always been full of all kinds of nasties that everyone has to be aware and cautious of.  But in recent years, the web has grown so much and the nasties out there have morphed into much more of a concern.  The nasties I refer to include malware, phishing attacks, personal data collection, unwanted ads and more.  There are a few things that you can do to help protect yourself from the browser that you use to view the internet to things to look for when performing searches.

Continue reading →

Yahoo! Mail Plus features are now free to all

Posted on by josh

For years now, Yahoo! has been one of the remaining large email providers who required premium membership to use POP access for downloading your email.  If you don’t know what POP is, then, in short, it is a protocol that is used by mail clients (such as Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple OS X Mail.app and even the mail applications on mobile phones) to download email.  There are some other neat looking things they have added over the years that also required a premium membership.

Continue reading →

Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 Control Panel Hangs/Freezes (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on by josh

[This is Part 1 of a two part problem.  You can see the description and solution for the second issue which was no audio during and after the part 1 solution was completed.  See Part 2 here.]

I ran into this issue a couple of weeks ago and eventually threw my hands up.  Today, I came across the exact same symptoms on another computer so I decided to dig further in and find the cause.  After successfully discovering the problem and applying the solution to the first problematic computer, I was able to fix the issue without reloading/refreshing the PCs.

Continue reading →

Tojan.Poweliks Virus

Posted on by josh

I haven’t done much investigation on this virus, but I ran across it on a client’s machine and spent a while before I finally discovered the issue.

The symptoms I was seeing didn’t show any signs of a virus.  Malwarebytes and AVG Antivirus were not detecting anything and I wasn’t seeing anything out of the ordinary except for some Microsoft owned process that generally are not running on systems, especially business machines.

Continue reading →