We’ve all known the existence of viruses on computers for longer than we can remember. And everyone knows the top two names in the antivirus industry…Mcafee and Norton. So the problem becomes that such a known issue has, what is assumed to be, such a known solution. Buy an antivirus, install it on the computer, and you’re safe. This notion is further compounded by the plethora of free antivirus solutions coupled with built-in firewalls and “defender” programs that come with the operating system of a computer. Unfortunately, the method of defending computers against malware isn’t quite so simple and can leave users with a false sense of security. Malware has become more malicious and prevalent in recent years and the stakes have never been higher for protecting data against attack.
Before 3 years ago, viruses were rumored to delete data but only in very rare occurrences. More often, viruses would simply create a nuisance to the user in the way of blocking normal use, creating popups, and disrupting work.
With the advent of ransomware, things have become quite a bit more serious. Once ransomware has been downloaded, the software encrypts all data found on the computer, attached drives and folders on the network. Any user can potentially bring an entire company to a halt simply by coming in contact with malicious code. That code can be obtained as easily as misspelling a website address and going to the wrong website. The worst part of this is that quite often an antivirus – ANY antivirus – may not detect the malware, or at least not in time to stop data encryption.
Once encrypted, the data is essentially impossible to decrypt without a decryption key. For a fee, the key holder may or may not provide the key to restore the data. Without paying the fee, the only way to get a company’s data back is to restore from a recent backup…assuming, of course, that there is one.
Paying the Price
So as you can see, it is vital to protect a business from such malicious malware attacks. It is no longer a matter of inconvenience when malware strikes. It can devastate a business. And paying the ransom fee to unlock files shouldn’t be considered an option for two reasons…
- There is no guarantee the anonymous party holding the data for ransom will provide the decryption keys once payment is made.
- Paying the ransom fee re-enforces the notion that victims will pay for returning their data. It encourages this sort of malicious behavior to continue as long as there is money to be made.
The lessons to take away from this article is simply this…
- Use a firewall with “threat management” to stop the vast majority of these attacks before they reach a user’s desk.
- Make sure you have a reliable antivirus running on every computer that connects to the network.
- Update workstations regularly to help guard against known exploits and security holes.
- Make sure backups of all company data are being run regularly, tested frequently, and protected from such malware. This isn’t always an obvious procedure.