The Gateways These Thugs Use.

There are all kinds of “gateways” that Ransomware thugs use to get into your system. And it seems they are coming up with new tactics all the time.

It’s also crucial that you choose strong domain passwords (these are the ones you use when you log into your Windows network/domain). Please, please do not use weak passwords like “password” or “1234”.

– Click here for a link about strong passwords.

– Click here for a WSJ article about protecting yourself from Ransomware.

– Google here for more.

If you don’t know about Ransomware and have no idea what it is and the insidious way it works, here is a brief overview:

• Once Ransomware thugs have connected to your computer network (one way or another) they run a program that systematically renames every file they can “see”. Now your programs can no longer access those files. In Plant this means none of your images can be viewed because the program knows them by one name and now they have been renamed on the hard drive.

• These renamed files cannot be returned to their original name because only these thugs know what the original name was.

• The more recent, and more virulent versions even rename your Microsoft Sequel Server databases! That means you can’t even open a program that uses an infected database!

• After infecting your network, these thugs will email you, usually demanding payment in Bitcoin. The two clients were hit with $10,000 and $5,000 demands respectively.

• If you pay up they promise to send you a key to restore the files to their original condition. But that key didn’t work fully for one client.