{"id":5543,"date":"2017-05-16T19:48:01","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T19:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/?p=5543"},"modified":"2017-05-16T19:48:01","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T19:48:01","slug":"how-to-avoid-this-booming-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/how-to-avoid-this-booming-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How to avoid this booming business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Talk about a growth industry. According to the FBI, the amount of ransomware payments exploded from $24 million in 2015 to more than $1 billion in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ransomware has been hammered into everyone\u2019s consciousness this week because of the massive malware attack known as WannaCry that locked files on more than 200,000 computers across the world. Ransomware is a malicious piece of software that encrypts a user\u2019s files then demands payment to unlock them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ironically, for as famous as the WannaCry virus has become, it\u2019s turning out to have a fairly poor return on investment, at least in comparison to other attacks. As of Monday 15th May, hackers had made just $50,000 in ransom and because the payment was demanded in bitcoin even that amount is going to be difficult to convert to dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, the fact that so many organizations and computers were infected shows the vulnerability of systems worldwide. And the criminals are getting smarter. They can now buy ready-made ransomware software from super hackers that make it possible for anyone with basic computer skills to launch sophisticated attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thinker offers managed IT services. We work with our clients to make sure their systems can survive a ransomware attack. The keys are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back up your data! We set up a frequent and regular backup routine for data and make sure it is stored securely either on the network or in the cloud. These should not be directly accessible to the PC they backup in case that PC becomes compromised and starts encrypting its backup location.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Patch and update: We work with our clients to make sure they install all automatic updates for all software on all devices, including security software, apps and operating systems. The Wannacry vulnerability was patched three months ago. Any PC which was compromised either didn\u2019t have the latest updates, or ran an operating system which is now no longer supported such as Windows XP.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, your IT firm can do only so much. Three things you should remember to help keep your computer or your company\u2019s system secure:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">View email with suspicion: Most ransomware is delivered by email that instructs you to open an attachment or click on a link. IBM estimated that 40 percent of all spam emails sent in 2016 contained ransomware. If you\u2019re not expecting it don\u2019t open it. \u00a0Consider using a service like Google GSuite, which pre-scans your emails and protects you when it detects an issue.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disable MS Office macros in Email: Document macros are the most common way to deliver ransomware. Make sure macros for email and documents are disabled by default. Do not click on an attachment directly, but save it, then right click on it and scan it with\u00a0your antivirus.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lastly, consider moving to a cloud-based work environment, like Google Gmail and Docs, and using a Chromebook or Chrome-based PC. This will make it impossible to contract a Windows virus. Ninety percent of most people\u2019s workload can be done entirely from the Chrome browser. It will also move the responsibility for backup to Google, who are infinitely better at it than any IT department or home user.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Talk about a growth industry. According to the FBI, the&hellip;<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/how-to-avoid-this-booming-business\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}