With many malware and ransomware attacks happening on numerous systems, many companies and households are wondering just how safe their network connections are. With network security that seems like it is working, it may not be protecting your systems against all of the threats that happen to the computer.
With many viruses rapidly spreading and changing the way they infect these systems, a lot of the antivirus software is unable to provide the full protection against the newest viruses. Protecting yourself from ransomware is a must when it comes to protecting your system and all that comes with it.
Take a look at some more information regarding ransomware and the ways that you’re able to protect yourself and your computer against it.
What exactly is Ransomware?
Many viruses are growing and spreading, but not a lot of people know what these viruses are. One of the most popular of these viruses is ransomware. So what are these viruses?
Ransomware is a type of virus that requests payment in order to have access to the files that they have encrypted and locked so the user cannot gain entry to them. Usually the price is high for just one folder. Additionally, they may disguise themselves as virus cleanup programs. When these are downloaded, they control the computer and may say there is a virus so the user has to pay to have the virus removed.
Since the discovery of these practices and viruses, many people have gained new insight on them. However, this only made them grow. They now have three distinct types of viruses that can be used to create problems within many systems.
- Cryptowall is the most popular and the one that infects the most systems. To date, it has over an 80% infection rate.
- TeslaCrypt is another form of ransomware that usually affects WordPress or Joomla sites. However, the key for unlocking the code that is put on the files was provided online by a hacker.
- Locky is the most recent one of the bunch and it continues to affect computers to this day. With an infection rate close to 20%, it is expected to continue to grow until more protection is put in place.
Why Does it Keep Growing?
Many people think that when you remove a virus, a new one is not going to take its place. Untrue. When a virus is removed and figured out, a new one that is harder to crack comes out in its place. There are always codes out there that have to be solved, it will continue to be a never-ending problem.
The rise in the number of systems that do not have protected firewalls on them has allowed these viruses to leak into the system. Those that do not know about these attacks might find themselves paying to have access to their files again. The virus works, so they will continue to do it.
How does it catch users?
There are numerous ways that these hackers are able to get into systems and infect them. With attachments being sent in emails or even links that ask the user to click them, each of these has its own set of warnings. If the person has no virus protection, they may end up with the virus because there is no warning stating that the link or the attachment may be infected.
Due to this, many phishing emails are sent out. Email inboxes generally catch these emails that are offering viruses to the unsuspecting recipients, but in the case that the email goes through, many people fall victim to the viruses.
Protecting yourself and your system
These viruses are expected to grow and expand to other systems in the coming years. Due to this, many people have to stay vigilant against the viruses that are looking to control their systems. These hackers do not care if you have nothing to give, if they take your precious family moments or anything else. They’re looking to scam people out of as much as they possibly can. They target whoever is willing to pay, it doesn’t matter anything about them. Due to this, it is important to protect yourself at all costs. You do not want to fall victim to their crimes.
Use these tips for protecting yourself against ransomware attacks so that you’re able to feel secure when using your system.
- Use an advanced threat detection program that will check out all of the files and links prior to having them sent to the user of the computer.
- Web filtering will detect anything suspicious that is happening on the systems. This provides an extra layer of protection.
- Make sure to have a data recovery in place in case of something like this. Having regular backups done on your system can help with this. If the hacker does get into your computer, you can wipe the system clean and use your backup to restore all of the data.
- Email protection that scans all of the emails to ensure that everything is safe for the user to open and it does not have links to viruses that might lock the files in the computer or create other problems.
- Network security intelligence monitoring through a program or company that provides up to date protection measures when it is needed.
There are also many other ways that a user is able to protect themselves against these threats, but using these top solutions can ensure that your network security is up to date.
It is best to be safe, not sorry when it comes to protecting your system against ransomware. You want to ensure that you’re protecting yourself entirely. When something like this happens to a system, it is important that the person speak with someone that is able to remove the virus and then restore the system to how it once was. If there was no backup, all of the data can be lost in this restoration. It is important to protect yourself against these viruses, as they can cause serious damage and the hackers can have access to all of your information stored on your system.
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