[Hidden-tech] Any experience with a Virus that attacks documents?

[Tim Boudreau]

At the risk of sounding like a crank...

There is a simple way to never have problems like this (or reduce their
likelihood to infinitesimal):  DON'T RUN WINDOWS.

Seriously.  There are alternatives - some of which (say, Linux Mint) would
possible feel more comfortable to someone familiar with Windows XP or 7
than Windows 8 does.  It's not your grandfather's Linux - I've set up very
low-computer-skilled neighbors with it, who loved it.

At this point, the Windows software ecosystem is predators all the way down
(think your anti-virus software vendor - which gets a list of every file
and program you open - doesn't sell that information?  Think again - I have
friends who work for one such vendor).  Let me repeat that - it's predators
all the way down - at best you get to pay a lesser predator to keep the
nastier ones at bay.

Or get a Mac.

Unless you do something highly specific that requires software only
available on Windows - say, CAD programs or software that runs a lathe
(sorry, word processors, excel and photoshop don't count - there are
genuinely viable alternatives) - there is NO reason to be running it.  It
is costing you money, leaves you vulnerable to problems like the one in
this thread and worse.

If you don't want to give it up because you *like* it, fine.  But that's a
choice like choosing to continue smoking cigarettes.  You know it will harm
you some, and possible really severely - and you are making a conscious
choice to do it anyway.  Because in this day and age, you don't have to.
If you think you have to, consider the possibility that this idea is really
just learned helplessness.

The whole idea of being in a situation where your computer is constantly
under attack, where innocent acts like opening an email can lead to
catastrophe, where the machine is not a tool you use like a lawnmower, but
something un-understandable and constantly buffetted by forces beyond your
control - that's not what the world of computers is like to non-Windows
users.  The fact that it got like this slowly, so it *seems* normal is more
like the story of the frog being slowly boiled and not noticing.  If a
malicious program has encrypted your documents for ransom, you're being
boiled.  If you're in a situation where that could happen to you any day,
why stay in that situation?

I run Gentoo Linux myself (not for the faint-of-tech-heart), but this is
the most Windows-user-friendly Linux distibution I know of these days.
http://www.linuxmint.com/
You can test drive it without committing to it, or install it next to
Windows on your computer and try gently migrating to it.

The point is, there are alternatives.  The first step is recognizing that
the problem is real.  And I don't see a lot of people pointing out that
there are real, user-friendly alternatives out there.

I know this won't help get your documents back, but for anyone reading this
who wants to avoid a similar situation, there is a way out.

-Tim
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