According to redorbit.com, the malware known as CryptoLocker could hold as many as a quarter of a million PCs to ransom – yes, 250,000 PCs like yours!
The malware generally arrives in an email pretending to come from UPS, FedEx, or DHS – the email contains an attachment pretending to be a useful PDF – which includes malicious instructions to begin infecting the computer and encrypting files. These files are supposedly returned to you if you pay their ransom – which varies from $300 to $700.
In a report on the BBC it was mentioned that the United States and United Kingdom have been worst affected – with the US accounting for 23.8% of infections, and the UK at 19%.
The focus of these criminals with Cryptolocker appears to have shifted from professionals to end-users – mainly because of a willingness to pay to retrieve their personal files. The catch-22 here, is that people are paying, so the criminals keep infecting… if EVERYONE stopped paying these criminals, they would not have a business model.
Apart from an effective antivirus – the most important thing to have is an up-to-date backup of your files – if you do get hit, then once the cryptolocker has been removed, you can restore encrypted files from your backup.
Even home users with a simple Carbonite backup can get their files back.. you MUST have a backup of your files though!