Windows XP and security

[Massa9]

I saw something new in looking at a friends computer today.  Well more heard it and saw the effects.  Running Windows XP 32 bit, SP3 i imagine, we encountered an issue with some documents being reformatted into symbols , encrypted i think. 

  The story is often told , the recipient of an email opens the attachment and then the file on the desktop is now ransomware . 

I hope that is not what happened though. I saw no program that replaced the background or anything. So much crap was running at once i could not identify quite a few things.  

So the short version is possible ransomware , CPU and Memory and Disk were slow but not pinned. Excel files on the desktop were encrypted, 

Any thoughts?

[TheAmazingCookieFromSquare]

This should make @terrytek happy

[sirtoby]

If your friend is running Win XP on a Pc that is connected to the internet in 2015, then he's basically asking for viruses. If it was ransomware, you'd normally get a prompt demanding money

[salecar3]

windows xp and 2015 ,like realy its like you sayin viruses come to me,beyond being lost for support in prity much any modern game or program he most install fresh windows(anything exept vista)

[jordguitar]

Format and install linux seeing as he is still on XP.

[GoodBytes]

Format and install linux seeing as he is still on XP.

If he has a Core2Duo with 2GB of RAM, he can run Windows 8 or 10 just fine, assuming Vista/Win7 drivers exists

[Stuff_]

Ransomware comes with a dialog that demands money for a decryption key. 

 

Download MalwareBytes and run a full scan. See what it picks up.

 

Also think about running a distro of Linux instead of XP. It is infinitely more secure, and can likely do everything you do on a XP machine.