Due to the snow I am home today and welcome the time. About 10 days ago I opened my laptop and saw an orange/red screen that had a count down screen clock with a message telling me to send $400 to Cryptolocker via the link posted or lose my files.
Apparently, this is the insidious Cryptolocker virus that has attacked about 40,000 laptops since November. I immediately took action by calling Microsoft. I have been working on this every night until very late but still lost a great deal of my files. Most pictures, vids, word documents, excel files and more. Fortunately I back up often but haphazardly. Microsoft was a nightmare to work with. I was on the phone every night with someone whose accent made it very hard for me to understand her. She said she was a level 2 and kept telling me she would call me back in a few minutes which was always hours later. I was in Manhattan all week so I didn't have a lot of my flash drives with me. I lost Outlook and she kept telling me I never had it. I almost went crazy. BTW, Microsoft charged me for this service.....and still I am not done, if ever.
The positive is that I didn't for one second entertain sending Cryptolocker one cent. And I had just backed up my Calibre Library the night before.
So, I haven't bought or read anything. I thought I would post this to warn all of you. I am now working hard towards my HEA.