What is ransomware and how to avoid it

As I’m sure you’re all aware, a whole bunch of public services around the world got hit with a “Ransomware” virus recently. We spoke to our IT department and asked them to give us a rundown on what happened in simple terms and what companies like us can do to avoid problems.

Here is what our techies say:

What the heck is ransomware?

Well, to put it simply, it’s a nasty application used by nasty people to encrypt your data and hold it to ransom unless a fee is paid. This fee can be paid in BitCoin.

Essentially, you (hypothetically, of course) open up an email attachment that contains the application and it then goes off, finds all the files you have access to (including the ones on file shares) and encrypts them making them unusable until they are decrypted.

This type of malware has been around for a long time now and we’ve got ways to protect against it for the most part but not entirely.

It’s important to note that the attack for this virus is either an email attachment or through a link in a dodgy email.

The main reasons for the extensive spread of the virus that’s been in the news recently is because the organisations hit are particularly lax on security and patching regimens and have very old operating systems in place that haven’t been upgraded since the dawn of time. Although at Office Power we don’t push patches as soon as they come out (we test them first) we do get them out quickly so we us and our dealers are secure here, but that’s not to say we can sit back and relax!

OK Geeks, what’re you doing to prevent this at Office Power?

Well, primarily, we have email filters in place, this should stop most of the dodgy emails coming through, but like any of these systems they will never be 100%. So what’s the last and best line of defense against these nasties? You! Just remember – if you receive an email that you think might be a little dodgy, just have a word with your IT department, or if you’re an Office Power dealer talk to us.

Stay safe on the network!