We often think that the people behind ransomware viruses must be hardcore programmers who have dedicated their life to writing clever code and bypassing common security measures, right?

What if I told you ANYBODY who knows how to use a website, can successfully create a ransomware virus IN MINUTES. This fact comes as quite a shock to most people, not only because it means the threat will potentially never be fully eradicated (if Jo public can knock-up a fresh variant in minutes), but it also means that a disgruntled employee working in your office, with access to your systems, can very easily plant ransomware ready to be triggered, or even trigger it themselves “oops”.

For the benefit of those who are not familiar with ransomware, its a computer virus that encrypts the files stored on computers leaving them inaccessible without the unlock key. The key is obtained by paying a ransom (usually in some form of anonymous, untraceable bit coin). If you don’t pay, you potentially lose all your data (or have to restore from the last backup).

Frighting isn’t it. This is exactly why IT support companies, like ours, have a baseline we implement on day 1 for all of our clients, in order to minimise the risk of dreaded downtime (and so we can sleep better at night). In case you missed it, in one of my previous emails I also talk about the bare minimim all businesses should have in place. If you’re concerned you’re leaving your business exposed drop me a line or click on the calendar to the right of this page to send me an invite to chat.