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Dino Cattaneo posted bad news on Facebook

Really sorry to hear about this totally unnecessary and horrendous attack Dino. I have been meaning to purchase your F-35 for a while but just hadn't got around to it, but I will be purchasing that aircraft as a show of support immediately. I'm also really pleased about your determination to not encourage these blackmailers in any way and also to try and salvage your work. It would of course be a huge loss to the flight sim community if this attack had dampened your enthusiasm as well. You are definitely also one of my flight sim heroes. All the best with moving forward.

Cheers,
 
n4gix said:
For over a year I have not kept any source files stored locally. They are all kept in a dropbox account which is in turned fully shared with other team members. Has anyone ever heard of files stored on dropbox having been infected by a ransomware virus?

EDIT: I answered my own question. Yes, however Dropbox will send an email notification of "suspicious activity" if a massive number of files are suddenly "deleted and replaced." Fortunately, all subscribers have a 30 day window to recover the so-called "deleted" files, and Pro subscribers such as myself have twelve months worth of recovery protection. That makes the $99/year subscription well worth the expense for 1TB of "secure storage" of Milviz's critical source files.
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Good to know those assets are safe!
 
Dino, you have raised the bar and pushed it even higher.

Dino,
I agree with the rest of the forum members in condemning the activities of these cyber-thieves. I also join them in saying how much we regret that this happened to you who have poured your talent and creativity into providing some of the best simming experiences available.

When I decided to try a fighter jet, I was drawn to the F14 Tomcat. Partly of course because of the Topgun movie but also because and I saw some remarkable freeware models. As I struggled to fly the Tomcat, I wondered if anything was out there with more working gauges and controls. Then I saw references to Dino's F14. I searched and found your website and eagerly downloaded the plane. I was amazed when I first sat in front of that panel and began toying with switches and levers. It felt like I was making the plane fly. When there was an update or even a new plane I wanted to get it. I purchased your F35 before you made it freeware and was ready to pay for additional planes as they were made available. I was always surprised that you made your wonderful planes available as freeware. I've had a lot of satisfying hours in your planes. Thank you.

I wish you well and I hope you can unlock those files. You deserve a good outcome.

Cal
 
Just bought the F-35 from the Flight Sim Store. Something to do for moral support, if nothing else. Don't let the b*st*rds beat you!
Sue
 
Thank you all for your support.

Rebuiding the geometry by decompiling the .mdl's is indeed a viable option (...geometry and texture coordinates are preserved, but you need to redo smoothing, animation, materials and XML tagging).
On the good side, the latest avionics are safe as they were already installed and the malware did not touch anything in the Programs folder.

However, at present, I do not have the will to continue with such a massive project as the EFA - I am considering some "smaller" projects just to regain some momentum...


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Absolutley gutted about the EFA Dino, It would have been great to have what you had produced. The images of what you had done looked fantastic. However I do understand.
 
Hi Dino,

I know it's a bit late now, but this may help others out there prevent their files being encrypted for ransom. I use https://www.fooli****.com/cryptoprevent-malware-prevention/ to hopefully prevent one of these nasty viruses encrypting my pc.

If you go for the $15 version it gets automatic updates, which should offer some protection, although nothing is understandably guaranteed because the criminals are always one step ahead, but as I say it may help some at least have slightly better security.

David.
 
WarHorse47 said:
David, can you redo the link? Got me curious.

Thanks.
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Type this into your search field (google, etc.). The reason it doesn't work is a name issue... foolish*t.com *=i :biggrin-new: but actual name is Foolish IT


cryptoprevent-malware-prevention
 
I was looking for ransomware protection. I came across freeware from malwarbytes. On their home page is a link to a beta 0.9.15.416 Malwarebytes Anti-Ransomware download. Had it for 3 months now. No problem.
 
TuFun said:
Type this into your search field (google, etc.). The reason it doesn't work is a name issue... foolish*t.com *=i :biggrin-new: but actual name is Foolish IT


cryptoprevent-malware-prevention
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When I saw the name Foolish IT, it occurs to me, how do know that the people behind actually putting out ransomeware on PC's are not the same ones acting as the good guys and selling us remedies. :dizzy::pop4: Sorrry but I'm a huge skeptic. :encouragement:
 
Interesting YT video re Ransomware

Worth a watch, also a link to a free defender which may work some of the time.The author of the video is a reliable and safe fellow

 
Naismith said:
When I saw the name Foolish IT, it occurs to me, how do know that the people behind actually putting out ransomeware on PC's are not the same ones acting as the good guys and selling us remedies. :dizzy::pop4: Sorrry but I'm a huge skeptic. :encouragement:
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I hear that after seeing how it was spelled on the net. I do use the Bitdefender version.
 
Actually, Cerber ransomware is currently one of the most active threats spread around the Internet. Unfortunately, its strong 256-bit AES cipher is not decoded yet.


I totally go after Dino’s decision not to pay the ransom. What I know about dealing with ransomware infection is that you should enter the PC into Safe Mode. This step will isolate all files and objects associated with Cerber ransomware. Then you could completely remove Cerber ransomware from your system. Thus, will prevent encryption of other devices connected to the system.


The good news is you may have the chance to recover some of your data. One way you could try is with Shadow Explorer. In some cases the ransomware deletes shadow copies in Windows and this method may not work. Other method is using data recovery software. You could search the net and choose one. I’ve heard that some good alternative are Stellar Phoenix data recovery tool and File recover plus.
 
...well, after some time researching the web and trying different solutions, I basically gave up - formatted everything and had a fresh start (which also was a good time to finally install two SSD - boy they are good and do wonders for photoreal sceneries load-times). By the way, believe it or not, I have even received some hate messages (mostly of the "you did not want to do [insert favourite aircraft here] so you deserve it" kind).

On the good side - Cerber did not touch anything in the "Programs" folder... so I was able to retrive the latest F-35 model update and - most important - the Eurofighter Typhoon - I have just finished restoring its geometry thanks to Model Converter X and there si a good chance I will continue its development.

More news soon - and thank you for your great support!

...here is a teaser pic of the Typhoon - almost back to where it was before the ransomware attack.

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Fantastic news Dino, not only that you are almost back to where you were in development but the damage to you emotionally seems to be minimal. The Typhoon looks great. Thanks for keeping us posted and up to date.
 
I would agree with Ted that the ransomware and remedy are often authored by the same people. See John McAfee interviews on this.

Dino,
For what it is worth you are not alone. I suffered a catastrophic attack about two years ago and lost my entire archive, including four RTM airport sceneries and all assets. I had to start from scratch and re-build from zero. If there was any consolation it was that I actually did a better job the second time around, although two years of lost income hurt badly.

For someone who relies on income from the sale of these projects, it is especially devastating when these things occur. IMHO, there should be severe penalties to those who perpetrate these invasions...and I mean severe, perhaps the way one would treat a horse thief in the old West.

For me, it is not feasible to keep a work station offline, so I back up daily to external drives and burn to disk as well when a projects is completed. I un-plug the externals when not in use.

Sir, your work is and has been very much appreciated. I, for one, purchased your payware as soon as it was released as a gesture of gratitude for all you had done before.
 
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Dino, I for one want you to know that your work is appreciated and has been for a long time. To those people who sent the "You deserved it" messages: YOU ARE IDIOTS! No one deserves to be the target of criminals, especially someone turning out High End addons for free! I hope that you get everything back on track soon Dino.
 
Back to Work

edakridge said:
Dino, I for one want you to know that your work is appreciated and has been for a long time. To those people who sent the "You deserved it" messages: YOU ARE IDIOTS! No one deserves to be the target of criminals, especially someone turning out High End addons for free! I hope that you get everything back on track soon Dino.[/QUOTE

I want to take the opportunity to thank you Dino for all the fantastic work you have done and are doing and have enjoyed a lot of your aircraft especially the S-3 Viking. Looking forward to much new work in the future.

I totally agree with the above that no one deserves to be the target of criminals. People who are so talented should be putting their skills to good not bad use. This has been going on for a very long time not just on computers or the internet and probably won't change until the end of the world and there are no more humans good or bad. The good won't care anymore and the bad will get their just punishment for their crimes.

Good luck with the recreations. Hats off to you!
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