8 A
SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2018
Virus
from 1A
Medeiros explained how an
individual or business can get
ransomware on their computer:
“I get an email from Amazon
that says my order was can-
celled, so please click this
link,” she said. “I order from
Amazon every day, so if I did-
n’t know any better, I would
click that link.”
But by clicking that link, the
user allows the virus to enter
their system.
“Ransomware is completely
activated by the user,”
Medeiros explained. “It’s not
something you get by just surf-
ing online. You either clicked
on something, downloaded
something or opened some-
thing that executed the ran-
somware.”
Medeiros suggests that users
should always contact a com-
pany directly if they have a
question regarding an online
order.
“Always go directly to the
source, and call the company
directly,’ she said. “If I get an
email from PayPal, it may be a
legitimate thing, but things
have gotten so bad with ran-
somware that I’m not going to
click on anything. It’s 100 per-
cent foolproof just to call the
company.”
Wilson is unaware how his
store downloaded the virus.
“I didn’t even know all this
went on for a day or two,” he
said. “But by the time I found
out about it, I think all of that
was said and done and they
weren’t giving our files back.
It was a bad deal.”
Not knowing that ran-
somware has infected a com-
puter is a key component to the
virus, Medeiros explained.
“Usually people won’t
notice that they’re infected
until they get a warning,” she
said. “It’s meant to be unde-
tected because it happens over
time. It’s not that you click on
it and, all of a sudden, your
computer is locked. It starts to
encrypt all of your files and
slowly locks you out all of
your stuff. So, today you might
be able to access everything,
but a week later you have no
files you can get into. It’s
meant to be a silent killer.”
Traditional virus protection
programs, like McAfee or
Norton Virus protection, gen-
erally don’t fight against mal-
ware, according to Medeiros.
“Many people think that if
they have an antivirus pro-
gram, that they’re covered,”
she said. “Unfortunately, it
does not work that way.
Ransomware is meant to be
undetected. If you have a fire-
wall or a virus protection pro-
gram, it’s not going to help.”
While she did state that pro-
grams like Malwarebytes can
help, they do not provide 100
percent protection. And if the
virus gets past a computer’s
defenses, the victim is left with
two choices: Pay the amount
asked for or lose everything.
Often, the ransom note will
provide a phone number for the
victim to call.
“It’s hard to track the hacker
down,”
Medeiros
said.
“They’ve gotten so good at
cleaning their tracks, even
when they ask you to call a
phone number. Hackers can
have five different phone num-
bers on their phone and soon as
somebody calls it an activates
it, they cancel the phone num-
ber, and no one can trace it.”
When the hackers do ask for
money, they often ask victims
to pay in the online currency
bitcoin.
“It’s usually through bitcoin
because it’s not a known gov-
ernment currency,” Medeiros
said. “It’s not traceable or reg-
ulated by the government. If I
pay you $500 in bitcoin,
there’s no way to trace it.
Obviously, if you sent them a
credit card, they could trace the
account.”
Wilson stated that he would
have happily paid the ransom if
he felt he had done it in time,
as $500 seemed a small pit-
tance to recover thousands of
dollars worth of invoices. But
Medeiros highly suggested
against this.
“Never pay the hackers,
because once you pay it,
they’ll start blackmailing you
every week or two, asking for
more money and threatening to
lock your files over and over
again,” she said.
But Wilson was at a loss as
to what action to take.
“What do you do when it
happens, call the internet
cops?” Wilson asked. “I didn’t
seem to have a lot of options.”
“Start with local law
enforcement,” Florence Police
Commander John Pitcher said.
“If you’re here in Florence,
call us. Then we can at least get
it into a direction which can
help if we can’t do it ourselves.
We have some abilities here.
Some of that is from thousands
of miles away and we have to
get help from federal authori-
ties, but at least we can get
help from the right direction.”
Wilson didn’t call the police,
not knowing that it was an
option. So instead, he simply
took the loss of the data and
attempted to rebuild. The prob-
lem was, he didn’t backup his
data before the virus infected
his computer.
“That was our own stupidi-
ty,” Wilson said. “If we would
have backed it up more reli-
giously, that would have
helped us. But I think we went
a couple of weeks before we
backed it up.”
And without the backups, he
didn’t know what was owed.
“We were backtracking, try-
ing to figure out who owed
what and who we owed,” he
said. “It got to be quite an
involved deal trying to
research all that stuff and see-
ing from past records what was
owed to us. I don’t think we
ever got that figured out, really.
That left us with a pretty big
chunk of income that wasn’t
available. As time went by, all
of that kind of snowballed and
we ended up owing the bank a
lot of money. ... It ended up
where we couldn’t pay the paint
company everything we owed
them.”
Backing up information is
critical, Medeiros said, and can
best be accomplished by storing
information in an online cloud.
“There are a lot of good com-
panies out there like Carbonite
server backup solutions which
will actually back up your data
to the cloud,” she said. “Say in
January they did a full backup
to the cloud, but come Feb. 1
you were hit with a ransom
virus and all your stuff is
locked. The good thing with
having your backup is that you
can revert back to the date
where you weren’t hit with the
virus.”
However, Medeiros said that
users cannot just download
their data back to their comput-
er because the ransom virus is
still within the system.
“You have to completely
wipe the computer securely and
make sure everything was
scrubbed off of it, and then
restore your stuff from off the
cloud,” she said. “That is the
only sure proof way in having
your files safe somewhere.”
Services like these are not
free, with charges varying on
the amount of data that needs to
be stored. Choosing to spend
money on cloud protection can
be a big purchase for a strug-
gling business.
“What’s your data worth to
you?” Medeiros asked. “If you
can’t be in business because all
your stuff is locked, and you
can’t run your company — 43
percent of businesses who have
a critical data loss don’t reopen
their doors. They have to start
from scratch.”
There are other ways to back-
up information. Instead of using
programs that only save data
directly on a computer, people
can use cloud-based programs
like Google Docs to write and
organize essential documents
for a minimum monthly fee.
If the cloud is not an option,
people can back up their infor-
mation to an external hard
drive.
“But the thing is, how do you
know you’re not backing up the
virus? If I got hit with a virus
today, and I didn’t know it, it
overwrites my last backup.
There’s no way to protect you
from backing up the ransom
virus as well,” Medeiros said.
Wilson has since worked to
implement many of these meas-
ures, continually backing up his
computer and buying the latest
cloud-based
version
of
QuickBooks, which stores all of
his information securely online.
“Hopefully that will protect
us from it happening again,”
Wilson said. “As time goes by,
the bad guys get smarter and
they’ll find ways around that. I
think everybody is in that boat.
You try and get the best stuff
you can to protect your comput-
er and pray that they don’t find
a way around it.”
As for the financial future of
Ron’s Paint, Wilson is still opti-
mistic. He’s currently working
with his paint supplier to work
out a payment plan for past
bills.
“I don’t think we’re going to
be closing,” Wilson said. “I’m
hoping one way or another
we’re going to stay here and
stay open. We’ve been here for
20 years, and we want to con-
tinue that run.”
Ultimately, the best way for
companies like Ron’s Paint and
individuals to protect them-
selves from such financial hard-
ships is to be careful about what
is downloaded and to make a
reliable cloud backup of impor-
tant files.
“Having a backup is your
safest best, and education on
what not to do,” Medeiros said.
To help financially support Ron’s
Paint, a fundraiser has been set up
with Banner Bank, and a
GoFundMe has been set up as well,
which can be found on the busi-
ness’s Facebook page.
!
$3 $1
-(((
$3 $1
$")-
% $$% '$% #
$ (#
"4
% $ #$$
!*$&*$++$* % # )$
"4
!*$&*$++$* ,,,"$ '$% $%%$
%# +
$%%% #% $%)#
#,',&,'&#$)
! %"%" * +" !
Spaces Are Limited Call Today For Your
FREE* Hearing Evaluation!
Miracle
5 Days Only! Ear
Tues, Hearing
Wed, Thur, Centers
Fri & Sat
Miracle Ear Florence
Miracle Ear North Bend 5
NOVEMBER
1 – NOVEMBER
2775 Hwy 101 Suite B • Florence, OR 97439
1938 Newmark St., North Bend, OR, 97459
MIRACLE-EAR
CENTERS
541-423-3142 HEARING AID
360-975-4697
Miracle Ear Aberdeen
Miracle Ear Shelton
Miracle Ear Newport
323 W. Wishkah St.
116 W. Railroad Ave. Ste. 106
1217
N.
Coast
Hwy.
Suite
D
Newport,
OR 97365
Aberdeen,
WA 98520
Shelton, WA 98584
(360) 292-4922 541-435-2753 (360) 358-3802
Visit us online at Miracle-Ear.com
One More Thing
Some parts of the evaluation include the use of a familiar voice, so please bring
a spouse or family member with you. Call us today to confi rm your appointment time!
2 0 1$$"/
*$ *" + - ## $*
!- -! $" 4(
*limit
one
coupon
patient
at %
*limit
one
coupon
per per
patient
%
'
#
#
%% at % the
promotional
price
during
event
dates
the promotional
price
during
event
#%
#
'#
(%
%$
+!
only. only.
Not valid
with any
dates
Not
valid
with other
any dis-
other
%
( or )%
+ Does
%#
$'%
count
offer.
not
apply
to #!
prior
discount
of
offer.
Does
not
apply
to
purchases.
up to '#$$!
a 35 db %$
loss.
$
% + Fits
% ##
'
prior purchases.
Fits
up
to
a
35
db
loss.
11/5/16
expires
7/15/16.
Expires March
23
% & Offer
Offer
$$!#
FYQJSFT
Offer expires 5/31/16.
%55' -+-$" 1*"- .* !- **"-4
-! *2 2* , *+ " 1+"++
2* %055 $-$"+ -$"3
5 Days
Only! Ear
Tues, Hearing
Wed, Thur, Centers
Fri & Sat
Miracle
NOVEMBER
.":
Miracle Ear Florence 1 – NOVEMBER
Miracle Ear North Bend 5
2775
Hwy 101 Suite B • Florence,
OR
97439
1938 Newmark
North
Bend, OR, 97459
MIRACLE-EAR
HEARING
AID St., CENTERS
MIRACLE-EAR
AID CENTERS
360-975-4697
CALL
TOLL HEARING
FREE 1-888-387-3068
541-423-3142
Miracle Ear MERIDEN
Shelton
Miracle
MADISON
ORANGE Ear Aberdeen
MIDDLETOWN
Miracle
Ear
Newport
116
W. Center
Railroad Townline
Ave. Ste.
323
W. Wishkah
St. Plaza
Service
Square 106 Spring Brook
Commons
Middletown
140 Samson
Rock Dr. WA
Shopping
Center
240
Indian
River
Rd.
Washington St.
Shelton,
98584
Aberdeen,
WA 846
98520
1217
N.
Coast
Hwy.
Suite
D
Newport,
OR
97365
Unit D
533 S Broad St.
Building A
miracle-ear-middletown.co
(360) 358-3802
miracle-ear-orangect.com
541-435-2753
(360)
By appointment
only 292-4922
miracle-ear-meriden.com
Most Insurance Most
Plans Insurance
Accepted Including
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Plans Accepted
+( ! % %+
" %"
" + " %"
!%(!
" %" %!+
#,',&,'&#$)'
+(
! % %
%+
%
"
+ !%(! " %" %!+
% *% &, +" ! ( !( %% + + % ) (% !
CODE:
CODE: EA7AM2CL
EH5AM2EP
1<
