A bit about CryptoLocker and how to protect yourself from its effects

Such is the newsworthiness of CryptoLocker that even the mainstream news media has, just recently, been publicising the bleak consequences associated with a victim's pc getting infected with the this virus/ransom-ware. For users of Windows-based computers there is genuine cause for concern. However for most - including those who have up-to-date internet security software - it's unlikely that you'd be unfortunate enough to get infected. However there is still a risk. And, although anti-virus software will clean the infection from your computer, the damage that CryptoLocker inflicts to your documents, images and videos is potentially costly. I say that because it's reversible but only after a victim has handed over a big (~£200) chunk of money to the extortionists behind this piece of malware. So prevention and precaution are, by far, the best options.Here are my top tips for protecting yourself from getting into that situation of having to pay a ransom to criminals to get your data 'unlocked':1. Ensure your antivirus/antimalware software is working properly and is up-to-date. 2. Be very cautious about opening any unsolicited emails, especially those with attachments or links.3. Make sure that any data you value is backed up to CD or DVD or to a drive or device that's not left permanently connected to your computer.Additionally I've used and recommend the use of CryptoPrevent which works by applying changes to your system which make it harder for CryptoLocker to establish itself on your pc. There are free and subscription versions with the subscription version auto-updating itself.

Problems downloading attachments in hotmail? I’ve seen this and have fixed it. Read on to find out how I did it.

I was invited to assist a client who was struggling to overcome a newly evolved problem on her Windows 7 laptop. The issue is understood to have appeared following the removal of Google Chrome from the system. Specifically the user was no longer able to download email attachments from her hotmail account. All attempts to do so resulted in the appearance of the following pop-up message along the lower edge of the Internet Explorer 9 browser window. The wording in the dialog box reads… Do you want to save  Get attachment_aspx?file= xxxxxxxxxxxx with a dropdown menu giving options to save or save as. Clicking on either button or the ‘x’ resulted in no response. Yup… zombified!

One suggested solution I discovered involved either enabling or disabling the browser’s Silverlight add-on. Alas that step did nothing to help. Another suggestion I came across was to make sure that the program and file associations were set back to refer to IE rather than Chrome. This revealed that some associations were set incorrectly but updating them didn’t help. In the end updating the browser to IE10 nailed it for me. However I also updated the old style hotmail interface to the Outlook one at the same time; it may have played a part.
My hope is that one or more of these suggested solutions helps others searching for a fix to the same or a similar issue.