As an IT Support provider in Vancouver, we deal with everything from drafting and implementing disaster recover plans to resolving and preventing viruses and malware. Think of us as your IT consulting agents and tech support team – working in the background, and just an email away.
Some common IT requests we receive are malware-related tickets; and what form of malware is currently most dangerous? Ransomware.
What is Ransomware?
Ransomware is a form of malware where a criminal encrypts files on your computer and demands payment to unlock the affected files – effectively holding them “for ransom.”
Ransomware has been around since 2005, but more recently has become an extremely popular form of attack. It’s a very blunt form of malware – simply locking you out of important folders and files, and refusing to grant you access until you pay up.
How Bad Is Ransomware?
Last June, the University of Calgary had to pay a ransom of $20,000 to decrypt files after a ransomware cyberattack on their computer systems. Ransomware has been so prominent that late last year, an FBI agent mentioned that in many cases they actually recommend some businesses to pay the ransom.
Now, paying up isn’t our recommended course of action.
Here are three quick reasons why:
- We don’t want to encourage cyber criminals
- Your business may become a bigger (profitable) target by paying the ransom
- There’s no guarantee you’ll actually get your files back.
But, the inconvenience of ransomware is often overwhelming for many people. Ransomware is a real threat because files are important – and often timely for fast-paced businesses. What would you do if your files were held for ransom?
How Do You Deal With Ransomware?
There are several methods of dealing with ransomware – but the best precaution is simply to have regular backups. If any of your important files ever get held for ransom, we can simply load a backup to a date before the virus infected the PC holding the files hostage.
But, what happens if your computer is already afflicted by ransomware? Do you pay the ransom? Don’t pay if you can avoid it – but contact Quicktech before doing anything.
Dealing with ransomware can be part of your disaster recovery plan – detailing the procedure and necessary conditions to re-image your machine with a proper backup. This completely renders the afflicted ransomware useless.
Why You Need Proactive IT Support
With proactive IT Support at Quicktech, we fulfill all the conditions for protecting your business from the threat of ransomware:
- Regular maintenance of your systems ensure that the risk of ransomware is mitigated and kept as low as possible.
- Active monitoring allows us to catch ransomware before it becomes an issue – and deal with the malware before it affects any of your business.
- Implement content filtering and malware signature targeting to prevent the call to the criminals looking for the key to encrypt your files
- In the case of malware infection or any unexpected IT issues – Quicktech is available and quickly responds to your situation so your downtime is minimized.
If you haven’t already been afflicted with ransomware – consider yourself educated! Take the necessary precautions to shield yourself from this nasty form of malware.
Our tech support team will save you a ton of headaches, especially when it comes to preventing and containing malware. Let us take care of IT.