Ransomware and other stuff

[leon]

Hi Guys, Last night I got a screen of flashing messages and alerts of a catastrophe, and ransom ware threats, plus told my computer was locked and all sorts of crap all at once.

Gave me a bit of a scare i might add, and I was not able to shut down the machine.

Anyway I did a forced shut down and a security scan that proved negative and this morning all seems well as i am talking to you guys.

so what was this and how can i prevent it from happening again, or was it just someone being a pain.

Thank You Leon

[ronson]

Hi Leon,

Sorry to hear the experience gave you a bit of scare. If it was ransomware your files on the computer would be encrypted and with an unusual extension, and you will notice you can no longer open them.

I can't answer your question as it's hard to tell what it was without any evidence such as screenshots, logs etc.

However, I can give you some baseline security advice to help you minimise the likelihood of of a similar scares in the future.

1. Ensure the account you use on your operating system (OS) is not administrator. Many OS-es allow you to create limited/standard user accounts. Admin account should only be used to make changes to the OS when needed.
2. Use a modern web brwoser such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Edge.
3. Regularly ensure both the OS and browser are up to date.
4. Use an ad blocking extension for your browser. Example: uBlock Origin, pretty happy with it.
5. Disable browser notifications. Example for Chrome: https://www.avast.com/c-turn-off-chrome-notifications
6. This one is a bit more technical, so be careful before going ahead and note down previous setting. Change the DNS settings assigned to your computer on either the internet router (look for the DHCP option) or on your computer network interface (wired or wireless depending on your setup). The easiest is probably to set it to 1.1.1.1 which is Cloudflare owned and have protection against malware. Again, make sure you are comfortable before making any change. If unsure, get someone with network knowledge to set it up for you.

In addition to above, the Australian Cyber Security Centre has plenty of guidelines how to protect yourself and your family when online, recommend reading through: https://www.cyber.gov.au/protect-yourself

[AstroViking (Steve)]

Hi Leon,

What Ronson said - lock down that PC and your browser. That will keep almost all of the crap out.

One browser to consider is 'Brave'. It's based on the Chromium source code but has all of the Google telemetry stuff ripped out and additional ad-blocking, privacy & security features added in. Combined with 'NoScript' it's as secure as you're going to get.

Cheers,
V

[leon]

Excellent, thank you very much for your advice, all seems to be OK at the moment, but it did startle me for a moment when it appeared on screen

Leon

[leon]

Hi Guys you mention Brave, can I just import my bookmarks from edge or another Browser to Brave.

Thanks Leon

[AstroViking (Steve)]

Hi Leon,

Brave should offer the option to import all your bookmarks and settings as part of the installation procedure.

If it doesn't then you'll have to use the bookmark 'export' function of your existing browser and then import that file into Brave.

There are some tweaks you can apply to Brave to remove fluff like 'Brave News' and their ties to cryptocurrency stuff. I have no interest in any of that, so turned it all off straight away. PM me for details if you need them and I'll dig through my settings to see what I did.

Cheers,
V

[leon]

Thank you indeed Steve, I have downloaded it and am working through it.
It seems reasonably easy to navigate but still trying to find some stuff, and going through general settings.

Leon