Ransomware Infections Are Inching Up..And What Can You Do To Better Protect Yourselves?

In a recent Straits Times report, more Singaporeans fell victims to ransomware.  According to Symantec, Singapore recorded approximately 16 attacks per day in ransomware incidents alone to the tune of over 5,700 cases in 2015.

And the numbers are set to rise.

The emergence of ransomware has gained notoriety even though it is relatively young.  This is largely due to its lucrative nature with minimum heavy-lifting.  Small-time hackers earn small money quickly.  And the accumulation of byte-sized monies can be quite substantial.

How could you protect yourselves against Ransomware?

Below are a few simple steps which users and organisations are encouraged to observe and adopt to better protect their digital assets.

• Avoid opening suspicious files, email attachments.  If you must open, perhaps contact the sender for verification

• Avoid clicking on suspicious hyperlinks and URLs.  You could identify some of these links which purportedly come from legitimate sources but upon closer examination, the suffixes in the links do not correspond to the legitimate senders domain

• Back-up your files regularly.  This can be a simple process and yet, many a times, it is neglected

• Update patches and hotfixes of software.  Most commonly, the operating systems(OS).  Ransomware viruses have evolved quickly and sophisticatedly in the past 12 months.  They attack across OSes, like Windows, Mac and Linux

These maybe quick pointers, but if you as a user can be mindful of these, you could reduce significantly the chances of infection.

SingCert, a government agency in Singapore has a comprehensive list of advisory in computer attacks prevention where you could learn more.