HARLINGEN — Welcome, you’ve been hacked.
“You’re done, you’re toast, I can’t help you,” said Victor Leal, Cybernation business owner and computer specialist.
He was talking to an audience of local business owners yesterday during the Downtown Harlingen morning coffee meeting about the next online virus to watch out for – Ransom ware.
“You get an email, you click on it and boom, your computer is infected,” Leal said. “The computer data is being encrypted in the background to hold the computer files for ransom.”
Leal told the group of business owners ransom ware takes over computer information and it can only be returned for a hefty price paid for with bit coins.
A bit coin is an international form of currency that is not recognized by any country.
Leal said when bit coin started, a single bit coin was worth one penny but now they are worth $350 each.
“I think a lot of people really tuned in,” Leal said. “I can look back at people and they look at me with horror in their eyes.”
The audience was quiet and concentrating on what Leal was saying.
A normal user typically is hacked by clicking unsuspecting links that are tied to computer viruses or computer hackers.
“I don’t care what they tell you, I don’t care what you buy,” Leal said. “The only way to get rid of ransom ware is to pay the ransom.”
For the rest of this story and many other EXTRAS, go to our premium site, www.MyValleyStar.com.
Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or purchase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which includes an electronic version of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other information you can’t find anywhere else.
