There is one type of Ransomware that is never going to go away and it has been talked about for the last several years. The difference is that it just keeps getting more and more sophisticated. As Ransomware develops it becomes more effective at its job and harder to remove if you get it. The latest strain is called Locky.
As with most Ransomware, this strain is usually found as an e-mail attachment. If you never open attachments, chances are you will never get infected. If you are the curious type that likes to see what is being sent then you are much more likely to get this horrible infection. 
If you happen to take the bait, the end results are frighteningly horrible. Once infected all of your important files will be locked and you will have no access to them. The same will go for all your networked machines and cloud based backups. Your only defense to gain some sense of normality will be to have a full bootable image backup of your computer. Thinking on trying System Restore? Forget about that option as well since the malware will lock them as well. Anything that is connected or attached to the computer will be toast! If you happen to be a bitcoin user, the access to these will also be disabled.
Your first line of defense is to never open an attachment! Use an alternate means of receiving files and documents such as a fax or plain old US mail. It worked for us years ago and it still works now. If you absolutely have to use an attachment, make sure it was officially sent by the person you expected before opening. Often times hackers get a hold of contact information and can make it look like it came from somebody that you know. If you use services such as Bit Torrent to download movies (illegally) it is more of a matter of when you will get infected, not if. You WILL get infected.
So you say you have a Mac and you have nothing to worry about? Wrong again. A new variant of this Ransomware is making Mac machines expensive paper weights. You are not safe with a Mac anymore! They are just as vulnerable as PC’s.
Since many of these infections comes through a Microsoft Word document, there are steps you can take to help prevent this type of file infecting your system. Since many of these infections come through with a word document, you can disable Macros from within the word program to help protect you. Simply open a document in Word and navigate to the File tab and choose options. Go to the Trust Center Settings and under Macros choose to Disable All Macros. This will help protect you from malicious word files.
You can see that with a little know how you can prevent yourself from becoming a victim.
Call us at 1-877-499-5548 today and we can check your system remotely. We have been in business since 2002 and we are US based and family owned.
http://www.advantagecomputersol.com/
