Hi, everyone!
Sorry to digress a little bit, but I thought I had to share with you all my ''horror story of the week''.
Believe or not my personal computer has been rendered inoperable by some sort of a ''scareware'' (a malware or virus). The hard drive is irrecuperable, the OS is destroyed! Still very lucky that the technician was able to retrieve virtually all my personal files (texts, pics, music, contacts, weblinks, etc.) since I had made NO backup (bad idea, indeed)!!
The obvious thing is that right now it is difficult for me to communicate (e-mails, etc.). In order to access to the web I have to go, like right now, to the nearest public library (reminds me the good old days...) Still working on a couple of my washers (some small repairs here and there). Will have to buy a new comp as soon as poss. and say ''goodbye'' to my old Pentium4. ||| 
The scareware my comp has opens a window about which you can do nothing. Everything is locked, your comp is hijacked. Nothing will make disappear that pop up window. Not even a restart. Nothing. That is not all: The window contains a sort of threatening warning from a false RCMP/Interpol (!) message which says that you've violated some copyrights, etc. (very unclear) and should pay immediately an amount of $100 via an CC Nr account in order to get your computer ''unlocked'' within the seven next days. No street address provided, no e-mail to contact 'them', not even a web address is indicated! Pure and simple fraud (see link below)!
What can I say in light of this horror story? Well, perhaps, the best advice is to ALWAYS keep backups (my future backup files will be stored on a USB key as well as on a good old CD-Rom). Other than that, we must beware of all those shitty viruses out there and always use of course anti-virus. Sometimes, malwares or freakwares can manage to find an ''open door''. This is what happened this week. It could happen to anyone. Nobody's comp is really completely 100% safe. Oh, one last thing (that everyone knows but many forget): we should NEVER download unknown or ''unexpected'' files which may be suspicious to contain trojan horses, malwares, trackers, etc.
Sorry to digress a little bit, but I thought I had to share with you all my ''horror story of the week''.
Believe or not my personal computer has been rendered inoperable by some sort of a ''scareware'' (a malware or virus). The hard drive is irrecuperable, the OS is destroyed! Still very lucky that the technician was able to retrieve virtually all my personal files (texts, pics, music, contacts, weblinks, etc.) since I had made NO backup (bad idea, indeed)!!
The obvious thing is that right now it is difficult for me to communicate (e-mails, etc.). In order to access to the web I have to go, like right now, to the nearest public library (reminds me the good old days...) Still working on a couple of my washers (some small repairs here and there). Will have to buy a new comp as soon as poss. and say ''goodbye'' to my old Pentium4. ||| The scareware my comp has opens a window about which you can do nothing. Everything is locked, your comp is hijacked. Nothing will make disappear that pop up window. Not even a restart. Nothing. That is not all: The window contains a sort of threatening warning from a false RCMP/Interpol (!) message which says that you've violated some copyrights, etc. (very unclear) and should pay immediately an amount of $100 via an CC Nr account in order to get your computer ''unlocked'' within the seven next days. No street address provided, no e-mail to contact 'them', not even a web address is indicated! Pure and simple fraud (see link below)!
What can I say in light of this horror story? Well, perhaps, the best advice is to ALWAYS keep backups (my future backup files will be stored on a USB key as well as on a good old CD-Rom). Other than that, we must beware of all those shitty viruses out there and always use of course anti-virus. Sometimes, malwares or freakwares can manage to find an ''open door''. This is what happened this week. It could happen to anyone. Nobody's comp is really completely 100% safe. Oh, one last thing (that everyone knows but many forget): we should NEVER download unknown or ''unexpected'' files which may be suspicious to contain trojan horses, malwares, trackers, etc.
