What Is Ransomware?

In this day and age, cyber security is more important than ever. Without proper security for your business and data, you are vulnerable to all sorts of malicious attacks. One of the most common cyber attacks is known as ransomware. Perhaps you have heard of it in passing, but you may be asking yourself, “Just what is ransomware?” 

 Luckily, we are here to walk you through it and why it affects you.

A Type of Malware

Ransomware is what we call a type of malware. Essentially, malware is what you call viruses, trojans, and other cyber security attacks used to gain access to money, files, and data. In other words, you can think of malware as an umbrella term for cyber attacks. 

What Exactly Is It?

Ransomware is a type of security attack where the attacker encrypts your files and demands ransom to regain access to them. To put it another way, think of ransomware as an attacker taking your files hostage and holding them until they receive payment. Moreover, this can be costly to remedy, causes intense stress, and can shut your business down for weeks. Sometimes months at a time if you are not properly protected. 

How It Works

The attacker needs a way in to gain access to your files in order for ransomware to work. This can happen through a number of ways. One of the most common examples is spam emails: an email looks legitimate, gets opened and/or downloaded, and next thing you know your computer is compromised. Your files are now encrypted. Then, the attacker leaves a message saying the only way to gain access again is to pay them the ransom. Other forms of ransomware include the attacker pretending to be law enforcement, or threatening to leak your information if you do not pay them. Essentially, ransomware can take a number of unfortunate forms. 

The Targets

The unfortunate truth is that the targets for ransomware can be anyone. You, your business, universities: anyone with a computer is a potential target for ransomware attackers. This is why proper cyber security is so important. Not even just important, but absolutely essential.