Got hit with a ransomware demand after clicking a fake invoice link

Last Tuesday I was in a hurry and clicked a PDF link in an email that looked like it was from our vendor in Chicago. Turned out it was ransomware that locked up all the shared drives on our office network. The popup demanded $2,500 in Bitcoin to unlock everything. I'm wondering if anyone else has dealt with these fake invoice scams and how you handled getting your files back without paying.

3 comments

3 Comments

blairm775d ago

Pay the $2,500 and move on. Your time and stress are worth more than trying to beat them. Then get proper backups so this never happens again.

averyc945d ago

I paid $2k once and honestly never looked back.

shane_carter5d ago

That $2k probably stung at the time but it's crazy how fast you forget about it once the stress is gone. I remember staring at the ransom screen for like three hours trying to figure out if I could just rebuild everything from scratch instead of paying. Realized pretty quick my backups were a joke and I would have lost months of work. My wallet cried for a week but honestly my brain felt so much lighter after just sending the money and moving on. These ransomware scumbags know exactly what they're doing with those prices too. Just high enough to hurt but low enough that you'll actually consider paying instead of fighting it.