This is a Public Service Announcement from ETV Software

We have been receiving a record-number of ransomware inquiries from local businesses around the East Texas area.

The attacks have the potential to shutdown businesses for days or even destroy a business altogether.

Ransomware spreads through email attachments and bad software downloads like a normal virus, but unlike a regular virus that just tries to spy on you or delete your files, ransomware locks you out of all your files using a complex password that only the hackers have.

Ransomware is also increasingly locking companies out of their local backups which makes recovering from an attack much more difficult.

The more sophisticated ransomware viruses are even getting clever about when they attack businesses.

Instead of triggering immediately once they get on one of your computers, they will spread silently to all the computers in your business and then only start locking down files at the end of the workweek so they have time to lock everything down over the weekend.

Worse, while many viruses are created by hackers just to see what damage they can do, ransomware has become a business in itself.

Once your files are encrypted by an unguessable password, the hackers will pop up a intimidating screen demanding payment to get your files back.

They usually want to be paid in Bitcoin, the online-only digital currency, and the ransom demand for files usually starts around $10,000. For large organizations like hospitals, that asking price sometimes extends into the millions of dollars.

There are some things you can do to help protect your company from ransomware attacks:

Step 1.

Have a comprehensive on-site and off-site backup plan. The quickest and most cost effective way to deal with ransomware is to have the luxury of being able to restore your files yourself instead of paying the hackers thousands of dollars to do so.

This requires your company to keep daily backups that are stored where the ransomware can’t reach them.

Step 2.

Have quality anti-virus software running on all your computers. At the end of the day, ransomware are just scarier, more damaging form of the viruses that have targeted computer users for decades.

Even the best anti-virus program won’t catch everything, which is why backups are still important, but they will help make sure your business can fend off most ransomware attacks before they even start.

Conclusion

Be careful about opening email attachments from unknown sources.
Always use strong passwords and use a standalone password manager instead of storing passwords in your browser.