# CryptoDefense: The new supervirus of death



## Jeffery (Oct 25, 2011)

Remember CryptoLocker, the ransomware virus that locked up computers and demanded money to unlock? Now, that horrible virus may have a companion thatâs a worse threat. CryptoDefense works in a similar way, and also demands money to stop it. The ransomware targets text, pictures, video, PDF and Office files and encrypts these with a strong RSA-2048 key which is hard to undo. It also wipes out Shadow Copies which are used by many backup programs. This gives it the potential to cause major, major problems. The cybercriminals behind CryptoDefense charge $500 in BitCoins to unlock the system, increased to $1,000 if you fail to pay up within the first four days.

For more information see: http://www.komando.com/blog/247072/...tm_source=weekend&utm_content=2014-04-05-a-ao


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## Andrewhill (Jul 2, 2013)

This only affects people without backups. Smart people "like me" immediately make copies and place them on USB drives. Yes drives, more than one. Let a virus lock my computer or files, I'll just reformat and start over which I do every few months anyway.

Seriously back everything up people, hard drives and blank DVDs are cheap.


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## Nate_in_IN (Apr 5, 2013)

LOL. All I can think of is, "Go ahead I can always download more porn."


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## Clod Kicker (May 7, 2012)

I've been hit by ransomware 3 times. The first time I freaked and didn't know what to do. The picture of Obama standing in front of the FBI sign caused a chill up my spine; so I hit the switch and restarted, formatted, and reinstalled my OS.
Now if it happens, I shut off the 'puter manually and restart into the safe mode, then run Avast and Antimalwarebytes to check for infection.
Didn't find anything either time, no further problems either.
I guess it's how quickly I shut down that saved my bacon. 
Plus the fact that I run 3 firewalls.


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