Please take note that an increasing number of computers are being infected by the Locky and Zepto virus. IT is taking all possible measures to prevent the distribution of the virus.

 
PLEASE NOTE: click to view infographic

1.Precautions:
If you suspect that your PC is infected, the PC must immediately be removed from the network. IT recommends that the PC must be shut down to prevent the virus from infecting other files on your PC. Please contact your Service Desk so that a IT-Help can be logged so that the PC can be redeployed.

2. Recovery of data:
To date IT has only been able to recover a very low percentage of data successfully, with more than 95% of the data being lost. It is therefore not cost-effective to spend hours recovering data. In order to remove the virus from a computer successfully, a machine has to be reformatted and programs reinstalled. Merely cleaning the machine is not a long-term solution.
 
3. Saving on P drives:
IT suggests that all official data rather be stored on P drives. Regular backups are made of P drives and the data can be written back should the computer be infected by the virus. As a worst-case scenario you may lose the data of the last day or so, but at least not everything.
 
4. External hard drives:
Please ensure that if you backup data to an external hard drive, the hard drive is removed immediately thereafter and stored safely. Should the external hard drive still be plugged into your computer, the virus can spread to this disc too, in which case the backup will be useless.
 
5. Google Drive, One Drive, Drop-box, etc:
Because these drives are synchronized in real time, this type of virtual storage space is not immune to these kind of viruses.

Please contact your IT Service Desk with any queries. 

Kind regards

NWU Information Technology team