ASBURY PARK PRESS :: MONMOUTH EDITION

APP.COM $1.50

WEDNESDAY 03.30.16

DINE AROUND TOWN

Where to eat in Barnegat
and Manahawkin. Table

THE RANSOMWARE THREAT:

YOUR MONEY OR
YOUR LAPTOP
20

Ransomware viruses are a

plague that has infected
computers in the United
States and more than 20
countries in Europe.

Brielle house
fire kills man,
according to
authorities
RUSS ZIMMER @RUSSZIMMER

BRIELLE - Despite his sisters desperate attempts

to call for help, a man died in a house fire that consumed the building with soaring flames that neighbors said rose 15 feet above the roof, authorities said.
The victims name has not been released, but
Brielle Police Chief Michael Palmer said the middleage man was the brother of the homeowner, whom he
was visiting. She was able to escape the fire on Tamarack Drive and ran across the street to a neighbors
home to call for help, according to Palmer.
She was taken to the hospital for precautionary
reasons, he said.
Her brother was found dead in the home, according
to Palmer.
A third sibling arrived at the scene after the fire
was extinguished, looking anguished and emotional.
Tears in her eyes, she was gently escorted away
from the house by who appeared to be neighbors or
other family members.
See FIRE, Page 4A

TANYA BREEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

HOW TO
STAY SAFE
1. Keep your computers
security software up to date.

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2. Keep your firewall turned on.

3. Do not open spam email
or links to suspicious websites.
4. Back up your files to a
secondary storage device.

Forget about that stomach bug.

The Ocean County Prosecutors Offices high tech crime unit is warning
residents that a new strain of ransomware, a cybervirus that locks you out of
your computers files, is circulating. It
has infected some area users computers in the past several weeks. The only
solution? Pay the ransom, authorities said.
Ransomware viruses are a plague. Once infected
installed to your computer by a website youve visited,
a rogue email attachment or link, or instant message

your computer will lock up. With names like CryptoWall, these types of viruses may create a popup window or Web page warning you that youve broken some
law and have to pay a fine, any where from hundreds to

Highlands is putting the fate of Shorehenge in residents hands.

The controversial concrete monument to Sandy
survivors, formally known as the Tilt-Up Sandy Memorial, is the subject of a survey being circulated by
the Borough Council.
The survey offers full-time and seasonal residents
one of two choices: Bring the 1,104-square-foot beachfront structure into compliance with environmental
codes or have it removed.
According to the survey, compliance will cost
roughly $17,500, while the cost of removal ranges
from $9,600 to $36,500 based on bids received by the
borough.
Instead of having one person say one thing and another person say something else, or someone ranting
on Facebook, we want to take the temperature of what
people are really feeling, Borough Council President
Carolyn Broullon said. This (survey) is pretty much
stage one. Then we want to have a nice town hall, get

See THREAT, Page 4A

See SURVEY, Page 11A

There is no cure or way to reverse the latest

variant of ransomware once your computer is
infected. Unless you have a backup of the files
on a secondary storage device you will not be
able to recover the files.
WARNING FROM THE PROSECUTORS OFFICE

Get your tickets now!

Frank Zappa in
his own words
Catch the N.J. premiere of Eat That Question on Saturday, April 9, at the Asbury Park Music in Film Festival,
followed by a Q&A and performance. Visit APMFF.com.

Supreme Court tie gives win

to unions seeking to collect
from nonmembers. 1B

ADVICE
CLASSIFIED
COMICS
LOCAL
LOTTERIES

5D
1E
4D
3A
2A

Shorehenge
survey being
conducted
JERRY CARINO @NJHOOPSHAVEN

Residents warned that a new strain of cybervirus

is circulating, infecting some area users computers
DAVID P. WILLIS
PRESS ON YOUR SIDE

The monument to superstorm Sandy known colloquially as

Shorehenge, on the waterfront in Highlands.

OBITUARIES
OPINION
SPORTS
WEATHER
YOUR MONEY

15A
18A
1C
8C
14A

VOLUME 137
NUMBER 77
SINCE 1879