[OT] Computer Blackmail

[Thomas McGrath III]

I am very grateful for my MAC after reading this. Thank Richmond. My  
WinXP machine is looking at me right now saying "Oh yeah! Just you wait"


Tom

On May 11, 2006, at 6:13 AM, Richmond Mathewson wrote:

> Last night a lawyer friend of mine phoned me in tears because all  
> off her legal files had apparently been deleted from her PC  
> (running WIN XP) and all she could find was a document:
>
> INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO GET YOUR FILES BACK.txt
>
> " . . . Reporting to police about a case will not help you, they do  
> not know the password. . .
>
> " WE DO NOT ASK FOR MONEY! W e only want to do business with you."
>
> and so on and so forth.
>
> The document states that the documents are stiil on the hard drive  
> but encrypted with a 30 symbol password - and to get the documents  
> back you must send an e-mail to 1 of 2 possible e-mails.
>
> This is fairly blatant blackmail.
>
> It scared me.
>
> Nevertheless I got all the documents back using a programs called  
> "freeundelete.exe" - it is necessary to recover them onto an  
> external volume, and (obviously) to have the Internet connexion  
> disconnected. On the system I worked on there was also something  
> called "SpySheriff" that, quite frankly, stank to high heaven.  
> Whether "SpySheriif" is somehow connected with this blackmail or  
> not I don't know.
>
> The WIN XP system then needs to be "set back" a couple of days and  
> then the documents copied back onto the PC's disks.
>
> Sorry that this is completely OT, but I thought that XP users might  
> be grateful for the information.
>
> sincerely, Richmond Mathewson
>

Thomas J McGrath III
3mcgrath at adelphia.net

Lazy River Software - http://www.lazyriversoftware.com

Lazy River Metal Art™ - http://www.lazyriversoftware.com/metal.html

Meeting Wear - http://www.cafepress.com/meetingwear

Semantic Compaction Systems - http://www.minspeak.com

SCIconics, LLC - http://www.sciconics.com/sciindex.html