Laptop was hyjacked and now dead

[john the baptist]

Hi my daughter was suing my laptop for her school lessons when it was hijacked and i got a call and so did my wife on our mobiles phones.

this horrible nasty Indian man told me i had a non valid Microsoft software and he has now taken over my computer and i needed to pay a fine. Well i told him to F@Ck @@@ and terminated the call.

however i was not at home so they reached out to my wife they had access to photos and started to kill the machine. whilst she was on the phone discussing the ransom my daughter continued to do her zoom lessons and the laptop was not disconnected from the wifi.

the computer wont start and the *beep* even started to open up my work emails and threaten to publish confidential client data.

Im a very worried as the computer is dead and this has happened but think my online banking is safe.

Has this happened before to anyone. it could of been me but more like my teenage daughter downloaded music or something and opened this *beep* to the laptop.

Im away on business at the moment so have not seen it myself but any advice on such and incident and can anything be saved or windows 10 reloaded???

cheers

jb

[Enrique]

Hi J de B,
I'm out in the Mountains riding at the moment I'll get back to you later .

[Enrique]

Hi J de B,

1) Switching on the laptop where does it get to.......

2) Depending on the above you may need to get in to Windows Recovery Mode, this will vary on the Make and Model


3) As this system seems to be vital you need to setup a Recovery Procedure, i.e Make Regular Image Backups and Have a Bootable USB so you can Recover the System quickly.

Kit for 3)
Toshiba 2TB Canvio Basics Disk , Macrium Reflect (Free) Backup and a USB Memory Stick for Bootable Recovery.

[john the baptist]

ok thanks but would it be easier or even possible to try to reinstall windows 10 from a bootable USB??? ive got most photos music docs etc backed up into HDD and also have other laptops to try to work on reinstalling all what had gone. I have yet to get my hands on it but will hopefully have it soon.
As ill will be briefly be popping back home between business trips (covid willing) and no changes to borders/regional crossings.

[Enrique]

Hi J de B,

Google your Laptop Make and Model to find how to Boot from USB.

If possible

Download a fresh copy of Windows 10 and create a bootable copy on to USB.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/softwar ... /windows10

Windows 10 has a Digital License so will Activate when Install completes.

You may need to Download some specific Drivers for your Laptop when the above Install has completed.