Hit by RansomWare

[BumbleBee]

Agree with @Ravynheart CD's and DVD's are chips cheap and relatively great, as long as they are stored correctly.

P.S. Always protect the TOP of your disc's!
If the top gets scratched, the data is useless...if the plastic gets scratched you can easily polish thousands of scratches out of the plastic

Another note: Keep an eye out for small "water-droplet" type spots that may occur.
They look like tiny round air bubbles or droplets but are in fact a living organism that eats the storage coating of discs
...and no I am not joking!!!
If you have 1 disc that gets this then immediately remove it from close quarters of any other discs or it will slowly spread through a whole spindle or CD-case of discs

I've lost a few cds already due to that. If I remember correctly (it was many years ago) the layer that the data is recorded on is made of an organic material and it can develop a bacterial infection. I've had CDRs that look like wood after the worms have gotten to it, little trails all over the surface, very cool patterns but no good for your data.

 

[TheLongTwitch]

That's the one!!!!
Them little buggers are a pain in the ass!

Depending on what phone you have and/or the backup setting of it, you may/should actually be able to retrieve those lost photos.
I know that most phones nowadays have automatic backups, but I turn it off to reduce the irritation of constantly using data and resources.
However if you check out the device setting you may find that there is a stored backup from a month ago etc.
(unless, like me you disabled it)

P.S. Came across an article with some useful info:

It’s kind of interesting to know that CryptoWall erases the original files in an unencrypted form. It’s the copies that undergo the ransomware’s crypto processing. So tools like Data Recovery Pro can restore the deleted objects even if they got removed in a secure way. This workaround is definitely worthwhile as it proved to be fairly effective.

Shadow Volume Copies

This approach relies on the native Windows backup of files on the computer, which is conducted at each restore point. There is an important condition to this method: it works if the System Restore feature was toggled on before the contamination. Also, if changes were made to a file after the most recent restore point, they won’t be reflected in the recovered file version.

• Use Previous Versions feature
  The Properties dialog for random files has a tab called Previous Versions. That’s where the backed up versions are displayed and can be recovered from. So right-click on a file, go to Properties, hit the above-mentioned tab and select the Copy or Restore option, depending on the location you would like it recovered to.
  
  
  
  
• Apply ShadowExplorer
  The above process can be automated with a tool called ShadowExplorer. It basically does the same thing (retrieving Shadow Volume Copies), but in a more convenient way. So download and install the application, run it and browse to files and folders whose previous versions you wish to be restored. To get the job done, right-click on any of the entries and select the Export feature.
  
  
  

Don't know if it will be of much help to you...depending on what you have already done, but thought I'd share.

P.P.S. If you want to attempt any of the above, make sure that you do/have removed all traces of CryptoWall.

 

[acorn]

@BumbleBee , seems you are not alone:

http://www.fin24.com/Tech/News/sa-firms-face-ransomware-spike-20151116

"Security company Kaspersky Lab announced recently that it was sharing a website to decryption keys obtained from busted cyber criminal rings."

 

[MorneW]

I use one drive to sync all import items like photos etc. The first sync will be painfull to get all the data there but subsequent syncs is only new or changed items. It only costs like R10 for 50GB p/m. You also get 1tb if you have an O365 subscription. Using a USB backup drive can still put you at risk to the ransom ware. Ideally your backup should be to a different PC or NAS box that does not use the same credentials as your pc you login too. So when you configure your back software the un and pw is specifically just for that. Just my 2c's

 

[MorneW]

You can also use synctoy as as simple "backup" It basically syncs a folder from A to B, with options to only add in one direction. ie deletes on the source side does not happen to the destination.

 

[Redeemer]

Well... Seems its not exactly Rocket Science...

https://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/meet-tox-ransomware-for-the-rest-of-us/

 

[BumbleBee]

Well... Seems its not exactly Rocket Science...

https://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/meet-tox-ransomware-for-the-rest-of-us/

Sonofabiatch!

 

[Eequinox]

Sonofabiatch!

uhhh what's your email addy again

 

[BumbleBee]

uhhh what's your email addy again

return@sender.com

 

[Eequinox]

return@sender.com

lol gotta love it