Thanks for the heads up and sorry to hear you got squeezed.
I'm getting sick and tired of computers.
We spend money on them and they are supposed to work for us.
But they end up doing a job ON US on behalf of others.

I don't remember being paid by anyone.

Why would you purchase something that works against you?

Google alright.. Googling into my affairs...
Mind your own business the whole lot of you.
Fed up with it.

Yuyutsu, in reading the blogs from others so effected it seems that there is no surprise left in the system, but who can be sure?

What I did note is that my entire email log had been accessed and the same virus sent to some of my contacts directly after I paid the ransom. So I put together a form letter and sent it to all my contacts and this prompted me to inform my other contacts such as OLO.

Armchair I hear your thoughts, but the same could be said of the monetary system.............but how do we live without it.

I presume that this crypto program only works on windows.
I suggest if you have become a victim they may come back again.
I suggest that you look into using Linux.
The permissions system means that every file has an owner and a group.
A program such as crypto loaded can only access files with your permissions.
So if you use a different username for emails etc everything else is
protected. The username is different to the email users name.
In any case if it is written for windows it won't work on Linux.
There are viruses that have been written for Linux systems, but they are rare.
It would be a nuisance using a different username but it would stop
that sort of thing. Files for other users are protected.
You can set the file permissions for other users of the group to be read only.
I believe this is why Linux is used for many web sites.

It is a bit of a nuisance if you want to access other files on your
m/c but I think you can get around that by allocating them all to
your particulat group.

I have never had a virus in the last ten years that I have used Linux
and I only run the protection that comes with the operating system.

As far as I know Aus Post does not send emails, they just leave a card.

In any case, THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK is the best policy !

sonofgloin
Do you still have the website/url or whatever you used to get your decrypt code.
Some of my staff are pretty good a hacking pedo sites and the might be able to get into this one.

Many thanks for your timely advice SONOFGLOIN, as a rank amateur with all things 'computer' I'm the sort of poor bugger silly enough to stumble unwittingly into this sort of subterfuge.

Hi there CHRISGAFF1000...

That's mighty decent of you ol' mate, to offer to use your resources to, disrupt or interfere with these bastards and their troublesome activities. If only you could apprehend the principle behind all this stuff, I'd dearly enjoy doing a 'Mexican hat dance' on their friggin' face ?

Dear SOG,

Thank You for the warning.
It's much appreciated.

I've got one rule as far as my computer goes.
I never click onto anything I don't recognise
as knowing. I simply delete it. It's worked so far
for me.

One question though - don't you have any security
on your computer that would warn you of anything
suss?