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Broken ransomware record, but, it’s still critical info…

The latest projections on ransomware from companies like Malwarebytes (who got it dead right this time) is far from encouraging. Viruses evolve and different versions emerge as time passes, making the security companies work even harder to protect us. This is a fairly normal cycle of cat and mouse, but as soon as the antivirus companies can create detection and protection updates the virus is usually stopped from spreading. However, ransomware is so profitable that people are now buying the base…

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Ransomware Infections Increased 48%…

The effects of virus attacks are always challenging to overcome but the financial and operational losses suffered through ransomware infection is far worse. And it’s not getting any better. The spread of Ransomware infections has increased 48% over last year, and a recent report in Australia showed that 85% of the businesses in the reviewed region had suffered an attack. That’s 85%. After battling the bug more than ten times I can’t even imaging the impact that has had….

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And… another misleading post on Ransomware.

TechRepublic can be a great source for information. And then, sometimes it’s not. Today it is not. Here is my response to an article claiming there were solutions to prevent ransomware and decrypt a drive if you do get hit – both of which are about 90% untrue. There are tools but they will almost certainly not help you. And there is no way to prevent infection except to never click on a link or visit an infected website….

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Malwarebytes Gets it Wrong

As an IT professional I can tell you that, although Malwarebytes is one of my favorite tools and most recommended options for security, this article is a bit misleading. I have been up against the very worst case scenario of ransomware once, and in total I’ve battled with it 11 times. That’s not counting the FBI screenlocker instances. The bottom line is, and Malwarebytes confirms this in other articles, there is NO WAY to prevent it. You can avoid…

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Comcast Finally Steps Up

After navigating the most unbelievable rabbit hole of disturbingly inept customer service for weeks, and one FULL WEEK without internet at all, I was finally able to get through to someone at a higher tier who had much more interest in resolving my problems. The biggest issue is that I had to call a friend who had a connection through the business side of Comcast’s internet services to get that number. I didn’t know he had something that would…

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And…. still no Comcast Internet.

Still no Comcast Internet access at the Kennel or house. The fourth tech in 10 days has now come out and supposedly the ticket has been escalated to “Maintenance”, whatever that means, but I have heard nothing at all since. The tech verified that the issue is not in my house. He did re-provision my modem (which is the third modem that’s been installed) Monday afternoon and my connection did come up, but it went back down again after…

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Comcast Internet and Non-Existent Customer Service

5 months now. 5 months without a reliable internet connection. The amazing thing is that I’m paying almost $300 a month for Internet access, TV, and a home phone we don’t even use any more. I keep thinking I should hook a phone back up but I just never get around to it. 5 months since my Comcast connection was something I could count on. And now, in the last month it’s become even less reliable. It’s worse than…

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Backup, Backup, Backup

It is impossible to harp on this subject enough. Backing up your computer, or your content in a business setting, is so critical to survival now that it cannot be discussed too much. The virus and hacker threats on the Internet are getting worse every day and no security product on the planet can protect your company data completely from loss or corruption. The only way to keep data loss from disrupting your company’s operations, or from causing damage…

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Pop Ups and the Killer Click

Pop up messages are becoming more and more common every day, carrying dire warnings about updating some software on your computer such as Firefox or Chrome, or more often “alerting” you that you absolutely must update Flash, Java, or Silverlight. The majority of these messages are fake and are trying to get you to click on the pop up window to either visit a page or worse – to launch a virus. The bugs that are launched are usually…

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Meet the new boss, NOT the same as the old boss…

Ransomware continues to be the number one subject in the tech support world. The changes in tactics and virus construction make Ransomware one of the most destructive and expensive computer or technical problems today. Although many computer virus outbreaks have been challenging to deal with, ransomware and the way if operates is a whole new can of worms. There are very limited resources available in the fight to protect your data. Education is the most important; it is critical…

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