Jenda George is a Pittsburgh-based Cyber Security Educator
A message from me, your friendly neighborhood cybersecurity instructor:
Ransomware is malicious software that takes hostages. The hostage is usually your computer. It encrypts (locks down) your entire machine or your most important files.
It also has legs. If your computer is connected to a network of other computers (like your work machine!), it can quickly spread and lock them down as well. (Imagine how popular you’ll be after that one.)
A Pittsburgh-area health system was hit this week and the impact may be devastating. Think about not only the loss of access, but the loss of patient records, often which contain life-critical directions.
It can be delivered over harmful email attachments, outdated browser plug-ins, websites, text messages and more. It can impact any device from your laptop to your smartphone.
Once files are encrypted, instructions appear on your computer or device, demanding a large payment in exchange for the decryption key to unlock them. The instructions may appear as a text document or graphic on your desktop or a Web page on your browser.
You can do a few things to avoid becoming a victim:
1. In email, make hovering a habit. It’s best to not click any link in an email, especially if you did not expect it. It’s safest to manually type in the URL you know and trust into your browser. If you’ve never done business with the person or organization, delete it. It’s likely a malicious email.
2. Do not click on attachments you did not expect. And if you think you know the sender, talk to them in person or make a phone call to verify they sent it.
3. Disable browser pop-ups. Keep browser plug-ins updated. And remember that even legitimate websites can be compromised.
4. Keep all protection software updated. Outdated software can mean the difference between detecting a strain of ransomware and overlooking it. (Attackers will constantly modify code to remain undetected.)
5. BACK UP. BACK UP. BACK UP. You can use backups to restore any locked down system, so do this regularly. I cannot stress how important it is to back up what you cannot afford to lose, because you may absolutely lose files forever when it comes to ransomware.
