All you need to know about Ransomware!

WannaCry has made a lot of people, rather businesses cry in recent times. To put it in perspective, around 200,000 devices were affected in the first few hours. Their precious files were locked down and no less than 300 USD was demanded to unlock the data. You can imagine how much of a loss from the user's side. People tend to neglect Ransom ware, but now its very important to understand it. 

What's all the fuss about?

Ransomware is a malicious code used by cyber-criminals for 'data kidnapping' and lock-screen attacks. Basically, it keeps your data hostage by encrypting your personal files or locking you out of your own system. It will be unlocked only by a key which you can obtain after paying a hefty amount in ransom before a deadline, or it is lost forever. These transactions are made in in Cryptocurrency (like Bitcoins) because it cannot be tracked, so it keeps the identity of the attacker safe.

Why do you need to worry?

The reason we need to worry because when it comes to digital security, we are kind of careless.
Here's a test. 
There are 4 fundamentals of basic safety- 
i. backing up data 
ii. having an up-to date OS
iii.  having an anti-virus system supported by malware and Ransomware detecting software.
iv. Never run untrusted applications or open unknown files on your system.

If you follow these, Cheers! You are among those who won't bow down to ransomware attacks. If not, better late than never. The Internet has become far too open and deep web has made access to inexpensive Ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) programs and launch attacks with very little effort.

How do they spread?

Malicious attachments in unknown e-mails used to be the primary cause of this issue but now, cyber-attackers directly target a network by leveraging the vulnerability of the outdated OS to find a backdoor to any PC and eventually putting the whole network at risk. 

Fun Fact: The other way round is having an OS so outdated, that no one bothers to attack it, like it happened with Indian ATMs. 

What you need to do?

Repeating the steps we mentioned:

1. Create backups- As long as you have your data backed up, there is no threat even if the data gets wiped out of your system. Just a system reset and restore and you are back to work.
2. Install- Install a good Anti-Virus (BitDefender) and Anti-Malware (MalwareBytes) software to keep you from threats. 
3. Update- The most important thing- update, update, update. Update everything- your OS, Anti-Virus and all softwares.
4. Discriminate- Do not run applications or open files that you do not trust.

As long as you have the basics in mind and you are vigilant, you are perfectly secure. It is not possible to stop the cyber attacks still there's a lot you can do to protect yourself. WannaCry has wrecked a lot of systems recently. There are reports cropping up for a newer ransomware called EternalRocks which is more harmful than WannaCry because it is immune from the very weakness which contained WannaCry, so keep an eye out and be safe! In the coming days, you are sure to hear that name more often.

Do share it with all. This is really important for everyone's safety.

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