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One kind of malicious software has shut down hospitals, fuel pipelines, and entire city governments by locking their files.
Ransomware is malicious software that infiltrates a computer system and encrypts the victim's files, making them inaccessible, then demands payment, often in cryptocurrency, for the key needed to unlock them. Because so many organizations depend on continuous access to their systems, ransomware has become an especially damaging form of cyberattack, capable of paralyzing hospitals, fuel pipelines, and city governments until a ransom is paid or systems are restored from backups.
A tool that backs up your files is actually one of the best defenses against ransomware, since a separate, secure backup means you can restore data without paying attackers. A free antivirus program is designed to detect and block malicious software like ransomware, the opposite function of the ransomware itself.
Security experts generally advise against paying ransoms even when systems are locked, since payment doesn't guarantee attackers actually hand over a working decryption key, and paying can encourage further attacks on the same or other victims.
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