Malicious

What a way to start the new year. Yesterday morning I was greeted with this as the background picture on my PC.

At first I didn't get too excited. I've seen bogus popups on our computer before, and we have a subscription to Norton 360. And when I checked the folder where I keep our family pictures (the most important folder on the computer) everything looked fine.

But then I tried to open a picture from Char's first birthday party, and I was informed the image couldn't be opened. It was the same for all of the others pictures. We've had computer viruses before, but this one was different.

The CTB-Locker virus sneaks into your computer, makes copies of all your documents and pictures, and then encrypts them. Your original pictures and documents are then deleted. If you want to access your information, you have to pay a ransom. Sounds like something out of a spy film, but unfortunately it isn't.

If you follow the cryptic instructions that have been left in your documents folder, you have to download a program, convert the demanded amount into bitcoins, and then pay to get the key that will unlock your stuff. I guess the average ransom is $400, but there's no guarantee that you will actually get a key, or that it will work.

I did back up most of our photos on an external hard drive, but it was plugged into the PC and all of the back up photos were encrypted, too. Sometimes a guy can't win.

I wished it was April 1, instead of January 1, but it wasn't. Four and a half years' worth of pictures are gone. Charlotte's whole recorded life has been stolen, and there's nothing to be done about it. This isn't the tragedy of a house burning down or someone becoming deathly ill, but it still makes me sick to my stomach.

I've purchased Spyhunter 4 to remove the CTB-Locker from the computer, but as for now the virus is too new for you to decrypt your photos without paying criminals. But I know Moore's law, and I'm confident that in a few years I will be able to again access my stuff. I'll just transfer everything to the external drive and put it on a shelf. It'll be a waiting game.

At least I have a slew of photos on my work computer, and when Char was ten months old I copied all of the photos and videos of her onto two DVDs, but I have no idea where they are after we moved last year. The search is on.

Although I can't get to old photos, I'm still taking new ones. Today we went to the Science Center.

And then we celebrated with a peanut butter and jelly calzone at Gusto Pizza. Unlike computer hackers, the calzone was awesome.