What is Ransomware?

I don’t know about you, but all I think about when I hear “Ransomware” is the 1996 Mel Gibson movie, Ransom.

But ransomware is even worse, if you can believe it, than the movie Ransom. (Apologies to all the diehard Mel Gibson fans out there).

Ransomware is software that will literally hold your data and your computer system hostage until you pay a ransom. What data? Your customer contact information. Your customers credit card information. Your financial information. Anything and everything that your business needs to survive, along with the pictures from Uncle Al’s 50th.

Calling your local IT person won’t save your data, the Geek Squad won’t save your data, knowing the Prime Minister won’t help save your data, and sometimes, even paying the ransom won’t save your data. No one has yet come up with a great strategy to deal with the attack once it happens, besides cooperate and hope for the best.

And being a small company from a relatively obscure (globally speaking) city in Canada isn’t going to keep you safe – they don’t necessarily target just the businesses who have the means to pay.

Most businesses go out of business after losing their data. Because all of that information that you store on your computer that you take for granted is really the lifeblood of your business.

Of course, you do have one defense, and that is preventative measures – having backups that aren’t on the same network as your computer. That way, even if they take all of your data, you still have all of your data.

And that is definitely something we can help with.