So I went down to the bitcoin ATM today...

[MakeBelieve]

A Bitcoin ATM? That's awesome. Hopefully they will be expanding worldwide.

[Lauda]

A Bitcoin ATM? That's awesome. Hopefully they will be expanding worldwide.

Currently only Canada I think.

[allthingsluxury]

Insane story.

[beetcoin]

i feel bad for old people who are ignorant to technology.. they seem to be the likeliest targets of these scammers. most of them seem like they aren't really wealthy either.

[bronan]

Well this story is not fiction but fact, the problem is that some are actually harmless but every time people with not enough knowledge get scared shetless when a huge message is displayed pay up to this and that btc address or else
I actually have helped one person getting the fake bitlocker of his computer and that family was very happy, and most important had to pay nothing to me either.
That does not mean these are all copy cats trying to get rich easy, i also have had a victim of the real virus.
And that ended not in a happy ending because his antivirus product had tried to remove the virus which made it lockup forever.
So do make backup copies and use different data devices to store your precious files.
I use myself 4 different types of backup media including online storage and offline storage devices.
Most of the online storage solutions do scan for virusses themself as well.
I like to add that most people with pc knowledge think they are safe with whatever os / antivirus products, but fast is we are not really that safe.
Most brute force password crackers can do millions of password is short time and have massive datafiles containing endless passwords ever used.
And thats only with simple systems containing only 2 to 4 amd videocards, there are much bigger and fast pasword crackers out there capable of doing much more.
History shows not even banks, nasa, fbi , governements police and more important security providers in every branch get hacked fairly easy by these criminals.
So do you think your simple linux of windows securty password is safe ... guess again if you say yes

[Ruzka]

Good thing you warned the lady before she wasted her money on an easy to remove virus!

[Tally-ho Soy Sauce]

Thats a sad story, but I cant stand talking to people about bitcoin that don't know what it is. Kinda funny she got to that level of awesome. WHAT WAS THE EXCHANGE RATE ON THAT ATM!? and what did the fee's look like. lol I would hate to see that.

[theecoinomist]

It is our duty as people who stand to get very rich off this to help these people.  This is for two reasons, one selfish and one unselfish. [/b] 

As a newbie, the storing part is a fucking hassle.. Try tell my mother on +50 who don't even know what OS she is using, to liveboot Ubuntu and generate a bitcoin address, it ridiculously hard unless you are a tech savvy.. :@ :@ :@

[Kluge]

What a bizarre twist that the bio-scanning ATMs I thought very creepy-intrusive end up being a powerful money laundering tool, anyway.

I'd guess the most realistic solution is to have people switch their email providers to one which is exceptionally good at blocking malicious emails. Gmail is pretty good at this, though not perfect. Alternately, it takes maybe 15 seconds for an end-user to use a DNS different than their ISP. Are there any decent public DNS servers operating on a whitelist? I hate whitelists, but in cases like the OP's old woman - sounds like the best solution, though it still wouldn't be completely safe.

Though.... I guess the more safety you add, the greater the sense of safety, which causes carelessness. Hm.

ETA: Hey - out of curiosity, does CryptoLocker shred files after moving them to an archive, or does it just do a cut & move execution? There may be a decent chance of recovery if the files weren't "deleted" deleted.

[Dabs]

ETA: Hey - out of curiosity, does CryptoLocker shred files after moving them to an archive, or does it just do a cut & move execution? There may be a decent chance of recovery if the files weren't "deleted" deleted.

That's what I keep saying, to undelete the files. But I think the bad guys got this part covered.

[freedomno1]

ETA: Hey - out of curiosity, does CryptoLocker shred files after moving them to an archive, or does it just do a cut & move execution? There may be a decent chance of recovery if the files weren't "deleted" deleted.

That's what I keep saying, to undelete the files. But I think the bad guys got this part covered.

Shoot just searched it up that is some nasty stuff best of luck to that old woman
Almost want to say use Linux to hack windows then download divide and separate the files by categorization and encryption
Then brute force but that is way beyond the specs for a 60 year old granny and in pro domain

[Kluge]

ETA: Hey - out of curiosity, does CryptoLocker shred files after moving them to an archive, or does it just do a cut & move execution? There may be a decent chance of recovery if the files weren't "deleted" deleted.

That's what I keep saying, to undelete the files. But I think the bad guys got this part covered.

Yeah... This thing's pretty terrible (in the moral and negative impact way), but I'm kind of excited to see what they can do in the next version (if they don't shred the files now, they sure will later), though I wish the ransom were much lower. $350 is pretty mean. Maybe $35/BTC.1 once they have enough to sustain themselves would be nice. Idunno - is it weird to think that? It's kind of like a physical theft done in a novel-but-effective way, like tunneling under a gold bar reserve, or using large drones to capture high-level employees at a gold mine in a net and flying them back to the Lair of Evil, demanding $25,000 from the employer for each worker. It's interesting to see how they do what they do, and what they'll do next.

Maybe just from being jaded, but it's hard to feel much sympathy for the victims, too (this is said as someone who's been on the receiving end of a lot of preventable BTC theft). Even if "old people" are statistically less likely to be PC-literate, it's still a very preventable crime. You leave your garage door open all night, one day someone steals something, and if you tell your neighbors, they'll all roll their eyes and ask why you thought it was a good idea to leave your garage door open every night. I wonder if it's irresponsible to sell PCs to people without making sure they're fully aware of the dangers and fairly basic ways to prevent them. There's really nothing you can sell with as few safety warnings for the risk as a PC. First of all, the cases never say "DO NOT EAT." At least with the batshit-insane NSA in the US, it will soon be trivial to enforce a requirement that US Internet users have some "certificate of safe use habits." Children, think of the grandparents! ramble, ramble, ramble...

[rpietila]

A Bitcoin ATM? That's awesome. Hopefully they will be expanding worldwide.

Currently only Canada I think.

I have used one in Helsinki, Finland. It will be fixed installation next week.

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

I hadn't heard anything about this, yet. Thanks for the information.

[runam0k]

Hasn't anti-virus/-trojan software caught up with this yet?

There was a good article on coindesk speculating that the recent btc price rise might be due at least in part to cryptolocker.

[Lauda]

Hasn't anti-virus/-trojan software caught up with this yet?

There was a good article on coindesk speculating that the recent btc price rise might be due at least in part to cryptolocker.

No I doubt that this has happened, not yet at least.

[Sukrim]

Hasn't anti-virus/-trojan software caught up with this yet?

Well, the ransomware software is actively developed and apparently actively funded too.

Prices rising due to a few people buying 350 USD of BTC? Just calculate how much money has been flowing into BTC recently and then how many people with a virus this would have been...

[freedomno1]

Hasn't anti-virus/-trojan software caught up with this yet?

Well, the ransomware software is actively developed and apparently actively funded too.

Prices rising due to a few people buying 350 USD of BTC? Just calculate how much money has been flowing into BTC recently and then how many people with a virus this would have been...

Well their is no absolutely guilt-free money the profit has to come from somewhere
That said U_U Russian hackers not cool not cool at all that's just extortion do not want to see a rise in bitcoin due to ransomware

[simonvrouwe]

Looking at this from an economic perspective, how did the virus-designers determine the price they would ask victims to return (decrypt) their data? How much are you willing to pay to get your data back? And how much does a descent anti-virus program, OS or backup-drive cost? Bitcoin is new technology which brings great benefits ... also to criminals. This virus will force people to think about it and make backups. So the more this virus hits the news, the better.

Unless there is some real planet-saving issue, I am against any form of blacklisting bitcoin addresses.

[ArticMine]

A practical solution to the cryptolocker virus issue:

1) Pay the ransom. Word on the street is that when the ransom is paid within the time frame the data is unencrypted
2) Back up the data to an offline storage
3) This is the most critical step Replace Microsoft Windows with GNU/Linux and propriety software with Free Libre Open Source software. This has the following advantages:
   a) It prevents any further infection from cryptolocker
   b) It allows the victim to recover the cost of the ransom over time by not paying for proprietary operating systems, proprietary software and proprietary "security" solutions
   c) It helps deter further criminal activity of this nature by removing one potential victim from an operating system that has over time been proving to be notorious for malware, viruses and the like.