Your data is very valuable and the criminals know this. They want to find ways to “kidnap” your data and hold it for ransom. I’ve warned you about this in Beware of Cryptolocker Malware and Cryptolocker Strikes, The Price Has Gone Up.

The latest threat has the bad guys impersonating Microsoft in an email about Windows 10. Attached to that e-mail is the malware and launching it will give you a screen similar to the one shown below.

Your files will be encrypted and the only way to get them back is to pay a ransom in Bitcoin. So if you get an e-mail claiming to be from Microsoft, take great caution before you click on anything attached! For more details on this scam, read New Windows 10 scam will encrypt your files for ransom on ZDNet.

For those wanting to upgrade to Windows 10, I’ve covered the process in the Claim Your Free Upgrade to Windows 10 post. Before you upgrade, read Is Your Computer Ready for Windows 10? As I say in that post, I’m going to wait a month or two before installing just to make sure the bugs are worked out.

If any of you have already updated, make sure to read Activate God Mode in Windows 7, 8 and 10. Of course those of you still on Windows 7 and 8 can read it to get a powerful feature enabled.