Anyone paying attention to the cybersecurity world in recent months has become all too familiar with the threat of ransomware.
That’s because hospitals, universities, school districts and even police departments have been the victims of ransomware attacks with alarming regularity during that time frame. In fact, all of the attacks we cover in our slideshow have taken place since February.
By paralyzing entire networks and locking down computers, most of these attacks have reduced employees to communicating through handwritten notes and fax machines. Even worse, patients and students have been put in jeopardy by these attacks.
Ransomware, a type of malware that halts access to computers until users pay a ransom, isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, all the latest reports on ransomware see it gaining momentum in the hacker community in 2016.
Measures taken to protect against ransomware have been met with new strands of ransomware that are harder to detect and equally insidious.
That’s why it’s important for institutions (not just schools and hospitals, but all businesses and organizations) to familiarize themselves with ransomware, understand how to prevent ransomware attacks and learn how to respond.