Ransomware doesn’t sneak into your PC like ordinary malware. It bursts in, points a gun at your data, and screams for cash—or else. And if you don’t learn to defend yourself, it could happen again and again.
Armed gangs of digital thieves roaming the information superhighway sounds like an overwrought action movie, but the numbers say it’s true: Ransomware attacks rose from 3.8 million in 2015 to 638 million in 2016, an increase of 167 times year over year, according to Sonicwall—even as the number of malware attacks declined. Why steal data when you can simply demand cash?
For the first time ever, the RSA security conference in San Francisco held a comprehensive one-day seminar on ransomware, detailing who’s being attacked, how much they’re taking—and, more importantly, how to block, remove and even negotiate with the crooks holding your data hostage.
