On any day – there will be multiple new viruses written and spread out on the web, via email and other means. This virus is not much different than many others in the past in the way that it spreads, but what makes it unique is the destructive payload that it carries.
The virus is a Ransom virus, which will demand that you will pay $300 for the promise of an encryption key that will allow you to get your data back.
You can read more about this infection in Wikipedia. (and it is verified in many technical sites)
What we are asking you to do is to be vigilant regarding security. We discussed before best practices in security to limit (as there is no way to completely eliminate) your security risks. If you would like us to send your way a reminder with the best practice recommendations – just let us know and I will email that to you.
Please let your users know about this infection. It is likely that in the coming weeks or months it will be changed again to some other form of virus, and there is no way to predict it. The only part that you can do is to follow best security practices, educate all users about new infections and proper use of the web / email, and keep good backup of your data.
If you get infected with this virus – call us at once. Do NOT attempt to remove the infection as it will destroy the encryption key and will prevent you from getting the data back.
At this time all Antivirus companies are working on this issue, and security companies are looking for a way to decrypt infected drives.