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The Pros And Cons Of Ransomware

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As technology improves, opportunities and challenges also increase. We have become a technology-dependent society because of the numerous benefits it brings. However, it has become a focal point for cyber-attacks, cybercrime, and industrial espionage. Cases of ransomware have increased since most of the cybercriminals have now developed tougher-to-prevent means of creating money through cyber-attacks. For an organization who has been a victim of such attacks, the damage caused can be very severe. For example, the ransomware can paralyze business activities of an organization. These attacks are not only target corporates but may also target small business and specific people. Any company or individual with access to critical data should worry …show more content…

When workers tried to access the system, they were only able to see and respond to a demand of $300 paid in bitcoin. The culprit was known as Wannacry or Wanna Decryptor. A similar attack was also reported in various parts of the world (brandom, 2017).One of the best ways to counteract ransomware is to avoid being vulnerable to the threats. Since ransomware attacks freeze and encrypt data, it is essential for an organization or an individual to back up their critical data and information periodically (Kansagra et al., 2016). Through backup, even if the system is attacked and data encrypted, a copy of the same will still be available. The copy may be used to get back control of the files without paying a ransom. Ransomware attacks often get to computers before working their way to servers. Therefore, any backup mechanism put in place should not be directly connected to the computers where the attackers can gain access. A copy of the files will only be safe if the backup is done offline. Although it may take a considerable amount of time to get the system back to normal, it is a painless process compared to a situation in which payment must be made to get back the …show more content…

Britain’s National Health Service was among the organizations that had not upgraded their system to the most recent version (Carlin, 2017). Sometimes, the IT departments of these organization might have valid reasons for the delay in deploying patches such as testing of patches in a lab environment for conflict before allowing them into the system, but timing is critical. The WannaCry demonstrated that many companies could be caught unaware due to their mission-critical custom applications and configurations that need to be check for compatibility before deploying the patches (Shinder 2017). However, it was evident that policymakers had to rethink and balance the risk of waiting and timely patching.Awareness about the potential risks and impact of the cyber activity on computers and networks is essential in preventing ransomware. Campaigns focusing on stressing that employees of organizations should not click on links and attachments should be carried out. Phishing is one of the common entry means of ransomware since most of the end users are not aware of the potential dangers (Kansagra et al.,

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