May 12, 2017: The WannaCry ransomware attack was a May 2017 worldwide cyberattack by the WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm, which targeted computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system by encrypting data and demanding ransom payments in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. It propagated through an exploit in older Windows systems. While Microsoft had released patches previously to close […]

Don’t stop at antivirus software. Make sure you have your bases covered against threats such as ransomware and phishing as well, with fully featured solutions such as Total Defense Ultimate Internet Security, which provides comprehensive protection across multiple devices.

Ransomware is a scourge. It denies you access to important files while demanding you pay for the right to have them back. Maintaining regular backups is a great hedge against ransomware. Instead of paying the ransom (which doesn’t guarantee safe return of your assets anyway), restore from a backup.

On February 18, 2016, the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid a $17,000 ransom in the form of bitcoins for the decryption key for patient data. The Hospital was infected by ransomware Locky, it was the delivery of an email attachment disguised as a Microsoft Word invoice that contained malicious macros. This has led to increased […]

Ransomware is one of the most dangerous cybersecurity threats because its damage is so hard to roll back; you end up having to choose between paying a ransom that won’t even guarantee safe return of your data, or possibly losing that information forever. Local or cloud-based backup can help by giving you full, restorable copies […]

Several thousand floppy disks containing the AIDS Trojan, the first known ransomware, are mailed to subscribers of PC Business World magazine and a WHO AIDS conference mailing list. This DOS Trojan lies dormant for 90 boot cycles, then encrypts all filenames on the system, displaying a notice asking for $189 to be sent to a […]