In this video, we're going to talk about ransomware, what is it, how does it look when it shows
up, how should you deal with it, what should you do to protect your own data and your business.
Good day Dan, how are you?
Good, thanks Tim.
So, ransomware.
It seems to be popping up more and more.
I'm hearing stories, almost everyone has had an experience or knows
someone who's had an experience.
How common is the ransomware problem?
Unfortunately ransomware is becoming more and more common, and you will hear more and
more stories about it.
Particularly, recently as more businesses are using their computers, you'll hear more
about it.
Alright.
So let's start with the definition.
What is ransomware?
So, ransomware is when the files on your computer have been encrypted,
so they're being locked down.
Unfortunately, you don't have the key to open up that lock.
So generally, the key is held by somebody outside of your trusted circle.
So a hacker or somebody from the outside.
When we talk about these people, I mean it sort of seems very odd.
But I mean are they, I wanna say sitting in a, you know, suburban Sydney, are they overseas,
who are these people?
I mean there seems to be so many of them?
So we refer to them as hackers that will, that have encrypted your data.
So the hackers can be sitting in any location.
They could be sitting in the room next door.
They could be sitting in the same suburb.
But more often than not, they're sitting in a country where the placing is not as good
as, say Australia or the U.S.
Right, so they're somewhere remote.
And they've come after you and your data.
How does that actually unfold, something called a pop-up is important, how do you handle a
computer pop-up if it starts saying "ransomware has arrived"?
So, once you see the ransomware pop-up come up on the screen, it's generally a red window
that says your computer has now been infected and the indication that it's ransomware is
that you have to pay some kind of ransom to be able to get your data back.
So to be able to get that key to unlock your data, you generally need to pay the cyber
criminal some kind of money.
Whether it's a couple of hundred of dollars, or I've heard of reports of tens of thousands
of dollars, that the cyber criminals demand to be able to get your data back.
Have you, I mean you have probably experience here, is it worth paying them, should you
not pay them?
What's the first thing that you should do?
Yeah.
To coin a very American phrase, is we don't pay the ransoms and that's we would say to
businesses is that you generally don't pay the ransom because there's no guarantee that
you will get the key to unlock your data.
So we would then look at ways that we can get the customer's data back without paying
the ransom, which is when we need to get good back-ups and also multiple copies of the back-ups.
Not only a back-up in their office but a back-up they might have off-site.
Whether it's on a hard drive at home, or whether it's in the cloud somewhere.
Okay good.
So let's talk about how to protect your computer from these sorts of threats.
How can you set yourself up on a PC or as a business to really be protected in that
way you're talking about?
The first thing that I would say to people is don't click on the link.
Right, avoid big problem.
Yeah, if you've accidentally clicked on the link then what you need to do is turn that
machine off and isolate it from the network, and just make sure that no other computers
around you are infected.
So, once you've checked to make sure that everyone is safe and that the outbreak has
stopped, then you need to look at ways that you can restore the data back onto your machine.
So setting-up therefore, looks like making sure that your data is well backed-up What
sort of time, if you're well backed-up and everything's going, what sort of time can
it take to restore a back-up?
If, let's say they've signed-up with you guys and got everything working, around about how
long does it take to sort this stuff out?
If your data is backed-up, and it's fairly accessible, it can take just a few minutes
to get your system back up and running.
Unfortunately, if you have a lot of data, and it's stored in a place that may not be
as accessible, it could take days or even weeks.
And you're offline for that whole period of time.
Yeah that's right.
Without your data.
What is computer spam and how is it related to ransomware or is it related to ransomware?
Spam, is all the email that comes in to your inbox that you don't want.
Then when we talk about these emails, it's more of a what we call a PHISHING emails,
that's Phishing with a PH.
SO when the email comes in to you, it might come up as spam, but it's really just trying
to entice you to click on a link, and when you click on that link that's when all the
trouble can happen and you can be locked out of your files.
Alright. Good.
Got it.
So, is there anything else the people should do to prepare their business for the eventuality,
that hopefully never happens, of ransomware.
Good passwords, good back-ups, and also good anti-spam, anti-virus software is what we
say to people.
If you take those steps, you generally limiting your chances of being infected by ransomware.
Alright, terrific.
Thanks very much.
For those of you who'd like to find out more or perhaps speak with Dan directly, please
reach out online through the website sabervox.com.au