How To Protect Yourself From Ransomware
Seeing as how it's fall, and today is Halloween, we thought we would look at something a bit scary. Ransomware is a scary, and effective, new form of malware that is on the rise. Slate recently published a story about it, and explains how it works. In essence, after you click on a link in an email message or a webpage and your screen will turn gray. Then a window pops up that is seemingly from the FBI, complete with a logo, and a live webcam feed of you.
That's shocking. What happens next is a whole lot worse. You'll see a message on your screen accusing you of downloading files illegally in violation of federal copyright laws. The message states that you need to either pay a fine or face up to three years in prison. You're then given 48 to 72 hours to pay this fine—often, as Slate reports, by purchasing a prepaid cash card—to avoid facing criminal charges. The message also states that you'll be locked out of your machine forever if you don't pay.
A real threat
Obviously, the criminal charges bit of this scam is fake, but the threat of coping with a permanently locked computer is real, at least according to a senior security advisor quoted by Slate. That begs the question, should you simply pay the fine—usually in the $100 range—and hope that the hackers behind this scam unlock your computer? Maybe not, according to the Slate story. After all, once these criminals have your money, what motivation do they have to actually unlock your computer? And how do you know that they won't target your computer again in the future even after you pay up?
True protection
So how do you protect yourself and your computer against this new type of malware? The same way you have been, keep your antivirus software up-to-date, and don’t click on any distrustful links.
However, if you do become a victim of ransomware you will probably need to talk to a security expert to unlock your computer. Another option is to contact the real FBI here www.ic3.gov and file a complaint.
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