Your money or your file
by Chris Dawson
This post was written in December 2006; specific information contained within it may be out of date.
In the latest twist on Dick Turpin style hold ups crooks are spreading malicious code which encrypts a companies data or a users emails. They are then demanding electronic payments for the digital keys to unlock them again through services such as PayPal.
The victim did not pay because he doubted his data would be returned even if he paid, says Dan Hubbard, vice president of security and research at Websense. Most of the stolen files were recovered from a backup disk, Hubbard says.
In this electronic age losing your data really is a case of “Your money or your life!”
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