Ransomware detects the drives on an system that is infected and starts encrypting the files within those drives. Ransomware usually adds an extension to the encrypted files, such as .aaa, .micro, .encrypted, .xyz, .locky, .crypt, .cryptolocker, .vault, or .petya, to show that the files have been encrypted — the file extension used is unique to […]

Imagine being locked out of your home. Now think about someone being inside and telling you that could regain access to it, without any of your belongings being harmed, if you simply paid a fine. It’s not a situation you would ever want to be in, but it’s one that many small and midsize businesses […]

Frequently ransomware is distributed through phishing emails or through drive-by downloads. Many times, phishing emails seem as though they have been sent from a genuine company or someone well-known to the victim and attract the user to click on a malicious link or open a malicious attachment. A drive-by download is a program that is […]

If you are the victim of a ransomware attack, you might feel like you have no recourse other than to pay the ransom. Don’t pay, since there’s no guarantee you’ll get your files back. Instead, plan ahead by maintaining a good backup that you can restore from in a pinch. A built-in utility like System […]

These terms are often used interchangeably but they refer to different threats. Viruses can self-replicate and spread easily through a computer or network. Ransomware is designed to hold data hostage by encrypting it and asking you to pay for the decryption key. Malware is a broad category that includes these two threats and many others.

Ransomware is not new – it dates back to the 1980s – but it has undergone a renaissance throughout the 2010s, to the extent that it looks almost nothing like it did in its early days. Perpetrators have enhanced various strains with strong encryption (CryptoLocker), designed them to exploit protocols such as Microsoft Windows SMB […]