What is Ransomware?
Ransomware is a type of malware that lock ups your company data until a sum is paid for its release. These kinds of threats are spread through email attachments and hacked websites and you need to be careful as they are on the rise.
Many would rather pay for a quick release of their data, but you can’t always ensure that this is will solve the problem. Our advice? NEVER PAY.
How Can You Protect Yourself?
When it comes to any type of malware, prevention is ALWAYS better than cure, there are a number of points that we encourage our customer to do to ensure the best protection.
Firstly, make sure you are running anti-virus that is suitable for business on all company devices.
Secondly, ensure you have written up an IT policy for your employees, that is read and communicated regularly. Suspicious email attachments and web-links are always the culprits so your staff need to be educated.
Ensure you have back-up solutions, just in case. In the unlikely event that you are hacked, a back-up means you may only lose a few hours of work (depending on your back-up plan).
How to Recover?
Firstly, do not pay the ransom. This isn’t always the best solution. Contact your IT Support providers immediately to work out the solution.
These ‘ransoms’ that you are asked to pay aren’t necessarily going to fix the problem. The hacker may only give part of your information back, but also will in most cases have to get into your system again to fix the problem.
Your IT Support company should take everything off your network immediately, to stop the malware from spreading. Following this they should scan all machines for malware and viruses- this will include servers. Then you restore the relevant, encrypted data to your machines.
In most cases, you can work out when the virus started that will allow you to work out which back-up to restore and determine the amount of data lost.
If you need any further information on how you can stay secure and prevent such attacks, give us a call on 01524 581 690 or email [email protected]. We are an IT Support company based in Lancaster serving the North West.
