Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com.
Let's talk a little about the recent ransomware attacks around the world.
A few of you have asked me about these.
Basically this is an attack on computers and systems around the world that infected some
Windows computers when people clicked on links, downloaded some things that they shouldn't
have.
It's been dubbed 'WannaCry'.
It's been particularly effective and gotten a lot of news because not only does it infect
the computer where somebody maybe installed something that they shouldn't have but its
also infected other computers on the same local network.
But the important thing to know about 'WannaCry' for Mac users is that it targets Microsoft
windows.
So it's not a threat to Mac computers.
Now that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be concerned about ransomware.
It's just this particular attack called 'WannaCry' doesn't effect Macs.
But there's important lessons for us to learn here.
We should take this opportunity to learn a little bit more about ransomware.
Basically how it works is that once your computer is infected it will wait, usually a few days,
so you don't know you have this.
Then all of a sudden it will encrypt all of the data on your computer and you can't access
it at all.
You can check out this Wikipedia page for all the details on this particular ransomware,
'WannaCry' and ransomware in general.
Basically you have to pay some money to get a code that then decrypts all your files so
you get them back.
Of course there's the question of whether of not once you pay the money you'll actually
get the code.
Whether it will work.
Whether you might not be subjected to attacks in the future.
That kind of thing.
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself against this.
As Mac users, who haven't been effected by this, but we should be prepared for perhaps
an attack in the future.
So how do you protect yourself?
It turns out it is really easy for anybody to avoid 'WannaCry'.
All they needed to do was make sure that they had their computer updated because this vulnerability
was known awhile ago and Microsoft offered an update.
It was only people who did not apply this update that had the problem.
So it's important you do system updates.
Now I know there are a lot of reasons why people don't do system updates.
They see an update and they want to put it off.
They're in the middle of something and they decide not to do it at the moment.
Or maybe they're afraid that it might break something they're doing right now, maybe some
software they're using.
Maybe they don't like how things change every once in awhile with updates.
Maybe something looks a little different or works a little different.
But it is so important in today's world that you keep your system updated.
It's critical because just like with this ransomware attack, which is hurting lots of
people around the world, there are threats out there and the defense against these threats
is to have an updated system.
In the past Apple has been very fast at updating Mac OS to make sure it protects against threats
like these.
But you have to apply the update.
If you decide not to do them then you could end up being a victim like this.
So in addition to doing this kind of thing you want to make sure that you follow some
basic rules.
Like, for instance, don't download things you don't trust.
You can download stuff from the Mac App Store but be very, very cautious downloading something
from outside the Mac App Store.
If you're not sure just don't do it.
Now obviously there's some companies, like say Adobe and Microsoft, etc., that are big
companies you know and you might have been using their software for years.
So just make sure you're downloading directly from them, not from a site that might be masquerading
as them.
Then, of course, keep your software up to date.
Not just your operating system but all of your apps and everything like that because
even apps themselves may have security fixes inside some of their updates.
So you want to make sure you're running the most recent versions of those.
Then pay attention to the news because every once in awhile there maybe some important
thing you need to know where you can update your computer quickly or avoid a problem and
you want to keep yourself informed.
So you want to do that.
Of course, I'd say the fourth thing is to keep a good backup.
Having a time machine backup is a necessity for Mac users.
You know, so far, ransomware attacks don't seem to effect time machine backups, that
kind of thing.
But it's possible technically that even time machine backups could be vulnerable to this.
So you may even want to consider an online backup which would be a lot tougher to, you
know, harm in terms of a ransomware attack.
So there's some advice for you.
Nothing to worry about from 'WannaCry' for Mac users since it's Windows software.
But you do want to make sure that you keep your OS and your apps up to date to prevent
anything like this from happening in the future.