Last week’s RicksDailyTips Weekly Newsletter explained why ransomware is so dangerous and gave you some tips for avoiding it. Well, things are about to get even worse.
Researchers at Cisco Talos have learned that new strains of ransomware will soon begin spreading like traditional viral “worms” without requiring the victims to click on a link.
In other words, the infection will occur automatically, with no user interaction required.
And that of course will make it a lot easier for the new “Cryptoworms” to infect numerous computer systems in a short period of time.
In fact, the worms could spread so quickly that countless computers could become infected before the anti-virus software companies can release updated definition files to block it.
This is a frightening development, and things are sure to get a lot worse before they get better.
As you probably know, ransomware is an insidious form of malware that encrypts all of the files on a computer’s hard drive, then notifies the user that a ransom must be paid to a hacker in exchange for a decryption key to unlock your files.
Once the Cryptoworms start spreading like wildfire, your precious files will be at great risk unless you have a current backup to restore them from.
And now for another disturbing note: The Cryptoworms will not only encrypt your computer’s hard drive, but your connected backup drive as well. That means even if you have a recent backup on hand, you might not be able to restore your files from it without paying the ransom anyway.
Bottom line: The only effective way to protect yourself against the upcoming cryptoworm onslaught is to create regular backups of your computer’s hard drive and then physically disconnect the backup drive from the computer.
Last week’s RicksDailyTips Weekly Newsletter has links to instructions for backing up your computers and mobile devices. Click here to check it out.
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