WE ARE HACKED! (1 OCTOBER 2015)

Before continuing with our travels I have to announce that on our arrival in Goulburn (real time 1 October) our computer was the subject of a cyber attack which infected all our files with an encryption which rendered them useless.

And of course, a message on our screen made it clear that unless we contacted the bastards who were responsible and paid a fee, all the infected files would be destroyed. Hooray.....all my stored photos gone....I'll leave it to you to imagine my reactions! 

Fortunately Liz downloads the photos onto a separate hard drive, and had done so for all but a few of the most recent. Unfortunately from my perspective, she has edited them to reduce the number we have kept. So, whilst we have managed to restore a selection of the photos, they do not include many that I would have used. The obvious upshot is that from now on I shall be forced to share much less of our adventures than I had planned (do I hear some unkind expressions of relief???).

As for the outcome of all this.  Firstly let me say that this incident was the last straw in what had been a very trying day...more of that in due course....and meant that we now had to scour Goulburn for a computer expert who could hopefully get rid of the infection (and possibly save the files).  There was no way we were even going to turn the laptop on, let alone use it in any way, until it had been cleaned up. 

The demand for payment from the ferals who had hacked us was never going to happen....I would have rather ditched the computer and bought a new one than give into those (insert a word, or words, of your own choosing!)

To our great relief, after some hunting around, we came across a real local whiz kid who was familiar with the virus with which we had been affected.  After hours of work he managed to disinfect our computer but, as he had predicted, could not save our stored material.  

So folks, as is obvious, we are now back in action again.  I am beginning to think that I'm just never destined to catch up, although per force the missives from now on will be considerably shorter on pictorial detail than would have otherwise been the case.

Back to Mataranka and beyond shortly.