Are you afraid because the last days you hear in news that there is a new type of malware called ransomware that encrypts your hard drive?
No more worries, in that post I will show you how to protect you from it.
First of all, for getting a good protection we should know how can we get infected. Basicly there are three ways of getting infected by ransomware:
Through a spam mail (The cybercriminals usually buy databases with tons of e-mails and they send massive mails to all the people in that list). Usually they offer things like hot pics of a girl or some stuff related. For avoid that way of attack use the common sense and dont download anything from a suspect e-mail (There are other ways of getting hot pics of a girl, use your brain dude).
Throught a vulnerability in one of your services connected to Internet. For explain that I will use an example:
Imagine that you play a game that has a vulnerability that allows the cybercriminals to execute code on your computer, if that happens, the cybercriminals will use something that allows them to infect automatically all the people playing that game.
For avoid that you should have all the software updated (Some cybercriminals buy 0days that are exploits that arent patched, in that case continue reading because there are ways to reduce the damage done by the cybercriminals).
Throught an infected device that is on your local network. Usually ransomware is programed to spread himself throught your local network, for avoid an infection of that type you should disconnect the infected dispositive of the local network inmediately for avoid bigger damages.
+Ok sir, but I got infected. What to do now?
-First of all check if you have a backup of your hard drive data. If you dont have one you should do one right now here is a tutorial: http://lifehacker.com/5816453/how-to-back-up-your-computer If you had one, then restore the data
+Good info sir, but my computer was infected until i had a backup.
-Uhh, so sorry to hear that. You have two options:
Pay the tax and get the key to remove the ransom (You shouldnt do that for 2 things. First, if you do that the cybercriminals will make money and they will develop more ransomware and second usually they dont give you the key.
Wait for a removal tool (If the version of ransomware is not very distributed, probably nobody will try to develop a tool).
Ransomware is a big threat, please do backups periodicly and use common sense.
