Another kind of ransomware. These low life criminals are getting more and more crafty. These kind of ransomware have been extorting people since 2017. And yet, no one get caught from this crime. This is absolutely devastating to small scale businesses who are the victims of this virus. Also give negative mark on Bitcoin reputation.
I am sure these criminals are fantastic in what they are doing and only those guys who are also involved with the same activity can be able to track them. Going after these guys must be a difficult and expensive exercise that is why we don't hear many of them are eventually caught. Anyway, this is one of the many risks we have to face when we are online. Our part is always be careful and do some necessary preventive measures, if they are needed.
Ransomware asking for bitcoins are older than that, e.g. Cryptolocker was popular in 2013. Before that, ransomware asking for ukash/moneypak/etc. codes have been around for years.
I guess we are seeing a good evolution here. People behind this thing are possessing higher than normal intelligence and they can even be genius in some aspect...sadly they are using their skills and talents contributing evils to our society. Right now, these people see a bigger opportunity with the use of cryptocurrency. I feel lucky to never been another victim of these guys.
Personally in order to avoid any data losses or issues I have a 6TB sata HDD that I store new files on every month or so, and then hide that away in a different room. I personally do it with a sata-based HDD so no regular person with a laptop would be able to access it, and also it's pretty cheap. I'm a bit confused though, was this ransomware asking for BTC payment or other crypto-currencies, I would assume they'd pick something like XMR or dash for safety, not Bitcoin.
Backing up is really a good strategy to not be a victim of ransomware and those who possess sensitive data must be doing this all the time. Data can be costly to recover once blocked or lost. According to the source above, the mode of payment was Bitcoin which can be surprising to us because there remains the possibility of tracing with this coin unlike maybe Monero or Dash. Well, it would be nice if they can be tracked, caught and punished for the crime they committed.