The Sunapee Police Department wants you to know about the latest computer scam making its way into email everywhere, especially business email. It’s nicknamed, “Locky”. Disguised as an invoice attachment, Locky is especially insidious because it automatically changes your file names and encrypts all of your data as it works its way through your local and networked computers. Once encrypted, your files can only be restored if you send payment (which is basically ransom) to a website in exchange for a decryption key.
Currently, Locky is appearing as an email message with a subject line, such as “Attention to Invoice #123456” along with a message such as “Please see the attached invoice (a Microsoft Word Document) and remit payment according to the terms shown at the bottom of the invoice.” The malicious macros are contained in the fake invoice WHICH SHOULD NOT BE OPENED. If you receive an email like this, alert your IT department immediately.
For anyone who finds themselves a victim of Locky, there are not many options available to fix the problem. Outside of paying the ransom, the most effective way of restoring your system is to complete a full software reinstall from your system backups. Because this method can result in lost data if your backups are not current, remember to make routine backups of your data.
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