Wednesday, 8 June 2016

Dog charity pays ransom to hackers — and gets computer files back

Sharon McKeil is relieved to once again have access to all the computer files she uses to run her charity BARK. But it came at a cost.

“It just galled us to have to do this but we had to get our files back,” McKeil said from her home in Alta Vista, where she has run the foster care and adoption program for dogs for the past 15 years.

A month ago, the charity’s computer was infected by ransomware, a virus that spreads by e-mail attachments or compromised websites, encrypting the host computer’s files.

Instructions that appeared on McKeil’s screen demanded she pay the equivalent of $1,500 Cdn in bitcoins — untraceable internet currency.

Anonymous donor paid charity’s ransom

McKeil’s computer consultant, Chisel Cantwell, advised her that there was nothing he could do to break the encryption and that she would have to pay up if she didn’t want to lose 15 years’ worth of files. For the full article click here 



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