We should all read this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/opinion/sunday/how-my-mom-got-hacked.html

Man that sucks I don't know what I would do in that situation

Uggggghhhh.....  Hopefully I never get something like this.  I back up my computer every other month or so anyways, but it still would be a pain to reinstall everything after blasting my computer out.

I wouldn't pay out anything. Fuck that. I've lost actual personal belongings to a house fire. It sucks at first, but your life goes on.

I'm actually surprised the most by the fact  that the criminals actually went true on their message and unlocked the files.

Probably for the exact reason it said at the end. They want people to know it's not a scam, but a straight up ransom.  You pay, you get your files back.  I keep everything important backed up to multiple locations.  I don't really have anything I couldn't live without on here anyway.  However, my wife does have a crap crap load of pictures she would hate to lose. Which is the main reason I use CrashPlan. Has worked great so far.