Ransomware is a grim reality of the world we live in today. Individuals and institutions have the power to hold big companies hostage for large sums over files and data. Given the mass-spread of ransomware like WannaCry, it’s important that we educate ourselves on the dangers of this digital terror before we fall victim to it! Here are a few lesser known facts about ransomware!
Here are a few lesser known facts about ransomware!
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The Surprising Number of Those Affected
While the general populous believes that ransomware is a rarity these days, it turns out quite the opposite true! The Wall Street Journal has estimated that in 2017 alone, more than 200,000 computers have been affected! This includes more than 40,000 private and public organizations both domestically and worldwide!
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The Correlation between Spam and Ransomware
Most people and organizations these days believe that ransomware attacks their computers when they’re hacked. However, if numbers posted by Trend Micro are to be believed, ransomware (more often than not) has a surprising point of origin! Instead of hackers, 76% of ransomware gets hold of your files via spam mail!
Therefore, instead of spending millions of dollars on your IT team, it’s time you educate your users on the dangers of replying to spam. Make sure to underline the importance of deleting spam.
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Thieves without Morals
The worst thing about ransomware is that NOBODY is safe. This is reflected by the fact that in early 2016, multiple hospitals in the United States were hit and held hostage for large sums. This delayed important surgeries and even interfered with the well-being of babies and patients on the ventilator!
What makes matters worse is that this wasn’t a one-off incident as in 2017, this attack was repeated again. Given the fact that doctors can’t write prescriptions for their patients without looking at their medical data and records, these digital terrorists can exploit the helplessness of medical teams in this regard. Thousands of dollars have been paid in Bitcoin, a figure which (unfortunately) looks set to rise in the future!
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Don’t Give In To The Demands
If tech experts are to be believed, then there’s no point in paying off the ransomware as there’s no way of knowing that these people won’t hit the ‘kill-switch’ once they’ve been paid. To those of you who don’t know, the kill-switch is the endgame of most ransomware.
If the ransom isn’t paid in full before the deadline, hackers make your smart phones and your computers completely useless by remotely disabling them! Therefore, even when you’ve paid off the ransom, no one can guarantee that you will be allowed access back to your device or that you won’t be attacked in the future!
Thus, tech experts urge people to do is not to give in to the demands of these digital terrorists and to resist paying up!
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How to Fend It Off
Surprisingly, it’s not that difficult to successfully fend off ransomware. Tech experts claim that beefing up cyberspace security, organizations can give themselves a better chance of combating ransomware.
However, the best way to prevent ransomware is to regularly backup your files. You can further increase your defenses by storing the backup remotely (either on the cloud or on separate storage devices).
If you follow these practices and you’re hit by ransomware, you can simply ask your IT team to restore your PC to an earlier date when the ransomware hadn’t attacked or restore the backup to a new PC and give yourself a fresh start!
If you’re looking for reliable Office 365 backup, cloud to cloud backup, VMware backup, Hyper-V backup etc then we at CloudBacko would love to help. With years of experience in the business, we are your surefire way of beefing up your cyberspace security and fending off ransomware.
Contact us today to learn more about how you stand to benefit from our services!