You must be anxiously hearing about the spread of the ransomware called WanaCry. The scourge of the ransomware is not new but, this time, it has managed to infect 75000 computers, worldwide.
Previously, big businesses and local governments have been the victims but, this time, the main target is the home users who don’t normally back-up their files.
So, what do you do to avoid this ransomware? And, what should be done if you by chance got infected by this ransomware? We are hereby presenting a 4 point action plan in this regard.
Backup and secure your data
We live in a digital age where we store everything digitally starting from photos & videos to important documents on our devices. We obviously should not store all our eggs in the same basket. Back up and secure your files in multiple places like external hard disk, USB stick etc. Remember that your back ups connected online like Dropbox etc. can also get infected by ransomware.
Patch and Update Religiously
Update your Apps, programs or Operating System regularly. Please make it sure that it is done on priority. Your software provides, time to time, do release patches to fix vulnerabilitieswhich prevents this kind of malicious software.
Have a security solution
Make sure that you know the difference between Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware program. They are very different. Anti-Malware programs knows the typical signatures of malware. They continuously scan your devices for those signatures and prevent you to work with those malicious programs.
Also know that all your digital devices including mobile phones or tablets are also equally vulnerable. Deploy Anti-malware program on all of those.
What can I do if I get ransomware?
You should not pay the ransom. There are a number of tools both free and paid that that can help you to decrypt a certain ransomware variant. Like, there are free Kaspersky Lab tools that can help victims of the CoinVault and Bitcryptor campaigns as well as the recent CryptXXX variants of ransomware. Just do some research to find out a free tool suitable for you.
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Author: Technology Vista
