A New Kind of Hostage Situation: Ransomware/ Madeline Boreham

It can look like a PayPal page in an email telling you someone just paid you, but when it is clicked on a page takes up your entire screen with a threat stating that you must pay ransom to an anonymous hacker, or all of your companies files will be encrypted (locked up to where you can never get them again.) This is called Ransomware, hackers are going around companies all around the U.S. taking their  data hostage.  The virus comes with a countdown clock so the companies don't forever to decide. Some hackers slowly break down the company one computer at at time.  Many companies have lost their entire lives work. They can't go to the police, because they can't do anything so even filing a police report is pointless.  Hackers use to take pre-paid cards and other normal forms of money, but they are now moving into what is now know as "crypto currency" some are now only taking Bitcon, electronic money that is used by online drug traders and hedge fund investors.  Thieves are getting better at finding more valuable data in hopes of getting more money.  There is no way to recover the data so experts are warning everyone to back up their company's data to prepare for this new wave of crime.

Everything is electronic today, it is easier and faster. People are building empires with their computers and using that same computer to record their progress.  Peoples lives are on their computers and it is terrifying to think that someone can take it all away in a second. The hackers are invading the companies private property and taking it for money.  If your entire career was on the line would you pay? In this situation you are helpless, because the only way you can get the data back is if you pay and still there is no guarantee.  It makes sense that police say don't pay, because it will only allow the hackers to develop a stronger program. This is destroying peoples livelihood, their income will be affected by this. It is important to make sure that everyone backs everything up. It is getting easier to access people private information on the computer. Although it is easy to file and store information on the computer, it creates a whole new way for people to steal vital information.




This article was written by Aarti Shahani for NPR. To read the full article click the link below

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/12/08/366849122/ransomware-when-hackers-lock-your-files-to-pay-or-not-to-pay