Ducktoes Wins Against the Worst Virus Ever: Cryptolocker

 

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A Law office client of ours got Cryptolocker, the worst virus ever, earlier this week.  Luckily they let me know before it encrypted all their files.  The lawyer stopped in the office and said something strange was happening to the files, that they were locked and said they were encrypted.

I immediately grabbed my laptop and went out the door and literally ran down the street to his office.  The lawyer yelled after me, “Where are you going?”  “To your office!” I said.

Luckily it had only encrypted one user’s files on the server.  Often it encrypts everything on the network because it is really contagious and moves quickly.  They were lucky they had us as their IT support and that we reacted immediately or they would have lost all their documents which would devastating and expensive beyond belief for a law office.

What I did:

• I reacted immediately. Since it was late on a Friday afternoon the it support techs were already on their way home after a really long and busy day so I went myself.
• Upon arrival, I disconnected all network drives and started virus removal on all desktops.
• I backed up any documents not yet encrypted.
• I took the two infected computers back to the office and quarantined them, then did advanced virus removal. (You have to quarantine Cryptolocker or it will infect all your computers.)
• I put better protection on their computers, AVG Cloud and Malwarebytes Pro. Before they had a different free antivirus which we don’t recommend but they liked it and until then it had served them well.  AVG Cloud is good because it is alerts us of viruses by email and Malwarebytes Pro prevents the encryption virus.

I love saving clients from catastrophic outcomes.  We can help your company too with our Calgary IT support services.