Netgain

On Tuesday, June 27, a new wave of ransomware, known as Petya, started affecting Ukraine businesses with spillover to other countries including the USA. This new attack makes use of the same exploit as the WannaCry attack from last month.

Organizations that applied patches to protect against WannaCry are protected from this new attack, which means all Netgain clients are protected from this attack.

Ransomware attacks are real and they are on the rise – affecting organizations of every shape and size.

Ransomware, a malicious type of software, indiscriminately encrypts a company’s files, and the malware operators require payment of a ransom to provide the ability to decrypt the files. Ransomware can be installed by simply visiting a website that happens to have malicious advertisements. In nearly every case, decryption without paying the ransom is impossible which leaves the company only four options: Restore from backup, pay the ransom, recreate the files, or live without them.

2015 was rife with widespread propagation of ransomware and 2016 will be much the same.

What is it?

Ransomware is different than most historical malware. Instead of hacking into a computer to acquire and sell sensitive data, ransomware encrypts the data so it is unusable until the user pays a ransom. The hacker doesn’t have to conspire, nor share the payoff, with anyone. CryptoLocker, a Russian, email borne malware, is the most notorious of known ransomware. It is estimated to have extorted more than $30 million.