We just wanted to do a brief update to let our customers know about a particularly nasty virus that has been doing the rounds at the moment. It is known as “Cryptowall” and is one of a growing number of encryption/ransom viruses out there. The thing that makes these viruses so nasty is the fact that they encrypt your data, essentially making them unusable, unless you pay a ransom. This fee is usually around the $500 mark and they ask for payment through Bitcoin. The reason they chose Bitcoin as their method of payment is due to it being a completely anonymous payment method. This prevents you from being able to reverse the transaction and try to recover your funds at a later date.

The good news is that we know how this particular virus is being spread at the moment. It is disguising itself as a spam email from a random person who has attached their resume. The text is usually along the lines of:

My name is Rusty Henderson, attached is my resume.
I look forward to hearing back from you.

Thank you,

Rusty

Along with this text will be a .zip file which contains the virus. If you receive this, please make sure to delete it and do not attempt to open it! If you or someone you know has unfortunately encountered this virus, please tell them to give us a call and we can go through what we can do to assist them.