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[LUG] Safety from scammers

 

A new series of three programs has started on Channel 5, Fridays at 7
pm. It is about how scammers work nowadays. I looked at my recording of
the first one yesterday evening. Scary.

It is not just about computers, but includes other items such as scam
phone calls and scam mail. However there was one section about a fairly
new method called ransom scam. The scenario goes like this.

You go to log on to your computer as normal but just see a message on
the screen telling you that your computer has been hacked and all your
files have been encrypted. The hackers will kindly decrypt them for a
fee, which often is requested in bit coins. One catch, there is a
deadline for payment. Miss that and the fee goes up. If you use your
computer for your business you have a problem.

This is proving to be very profitable for the scammers, and has become
very sophisticated recently. Even if you have backups, they often turn
out to be encrypted too.

So this raised a couple of questions in my mind.

As Linux users are we less likely to have this problem?

When I install a new version of Linux, (I use Xubuntu 14.04 LTS at the
moment, but a new LTS version is due out next April), I notice an
option to 'encrypt the whole disk'. I have always ignored this, but
would it be a good idea to go along with it?

Any thoughts on this?

Neil




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