A message from Dorset Police

You may well have read in the media about the successful international operation led by the FBI that had taken control of the GameOver Zeus botnet, a network of captured computers used to steal millions of pounds from individuals and small businesses around the world. An infected computer can also suffer a secondary attack by a piece of malware referred to as CryptoLocker which results is a victims files all being encrypted. Once encrypted a message appears seeking payment of a ransom if the user wants to access their files again. This encryption cannot be broken without the password (or key) held by criminals.

Dorset Police is strongly advising computer owners, who may not even realise they have the malware, to take steps now to remove the infection and protect themselves from future attacks. It is estimated that the criminals will probably be up and running again in about two weeks.

Whilst, it is hoped that the owners of infected systems will be advised that they have of the malware by their ISP, Dorset Police strongly recommends that computers users go to:

https://www.cert.gov.uk/resources/alerts/nca-alert-two-week-opportunity-for-uk-to-reduce-threat-from-powerful-computer-attack/

or

https://www.getsafeonline.org/nca/

and follow the instructions given to check for and remove the malware.

This warning is not intended to cause you panic but we cannot over-stress the importance of taking these steps immediately.

And remember, if you don’t make an effort to clean up malware from your own computer, you may become a victim or at the very least your computer will become part of the problem.

A/DCI P Little
Public Protection
Dorset Police