It could be game over for Russian hacker Evgeniy Bogachev as the US State Department and FBI have issued a “Wanted” poster with a US$3 million reward for information leading to his arrest, the highest price the US authorities had ever placed on a head in a cyber case.
Bogachev, apparently still in Russia, was charged by the US for running a computer attack called GameOver Zeus that has allegedly amassed in excess of US$100 million from online bank accounts of businesses and consumers in the US and around the world.
However, despite the taking down of the GameOver botnet and the demise of CryptoLocker, it’s not all over as new variants of file-encrypting ransomware still exist. The following screen is what you don’t want to see on your computer monitor.
Check out this nice article about how to protect yourself from ransomware with the Sophos Virus Removal Tool.
I have an easier, effective and unorthodox solution, which I have mentioned in public lectures and previous columns.: changing your cyber lifestyle by having “naked” computers, i.e. not storing a single file in the computer hard disks, apart from the operating system and software program files.
In essence, I store all my files on an external encrypted hard disk and use either the 1 laptop or 2 laptops approach – with the former you alternate between online and offline depending on when you connect the external disk to the laptop and with the latter, you attach the external disk to a laptop that is offline (you can go one step further with the Snowden approach by using an “air gapped” computer, as he has recommended to Glenn Greenwald) and work online only with the other computer. The latter would come handy when on the road (even with the extra weight) as there are always risks with public (which one should always avoid) and hotel internet connections, spying walls, etc.