Malware hasn't gone around deleting data in ... I'm not sure exactly when the last time is I saw anything like that, but it's been a very, very long time. The

Malware hasn't gone around deleting data in ... I'm not sure exactly when the last time is I saw anything like that, but it's been a very, very long time. The majority of malware now is a commercial effort, it's just trying to turn you into part of an obnoxious ad network, use your computer to send spam, pick up account information or credit card details that in aggregate are worth a little bit on some particular forums, that sort of thing. Cryptolocker is amazing because the developers didn't screw it up. It runs very quietly in the background. Most people never realize it's there. It comes in multiple pieces, so your AV software might disable the UI portion of Cryptolocker but all your files will still disappear (oldest files first). Each file is encrypted with a different key, and then a master key is used to encrypt all of those keys. It's basically, "the kind of malware tptacek would build if tptacek built malware." It's also been a huge boon for us in convincing people to get backups going finally, because the sort of people that are willing to gamble that their hard drive will never fail aren't also willing to gamble that they'll never click on the wrong thing online. I hate having to scare people into getting backups, but, that's how it is.