What happens when one day, you try to log onto your company computer and nothing works. You are only left with a message on your screen advising you to make contact. IF you contact that number or email address you learn that you have been hacked and need to pay a ransom to regain control of your computer. What to do?
On December 3rd 2018 this happened to Armellini Logistics and I share the story because it could easily happen to you. Armellini got shut down on a busy day and was luckily able to get back up and functioning within hours but with limited programs working, without paying a ransom. Having multiple back up systems allowed them to begin to recover data and regain use of their systems.
However, they still had to pay an outside firm a large sum to assist in the recovery which is ongoing as I write 20 days later.
It appears that the hackers do not always target a specific company but send out many bots to attempt to breach the security of computers by finding vulnerabilities. They hope to snare some of those being cased. In this case they did not know which victim was contacting them and wanted to know their IP address.
It is believed that someones computer is being hacked every five minutes. After posting the situation on my site I heard from several others who have had it happen to them or others they know. Some paid the ransom and moved on and most, it seems, did not. In the end the ransom might cost you less however, there is no guarantee that your systems will restored if you do pay.
If you remember back in March the city of Atlanta was hacked affecting city services and the airport. Everyday we hear of another company getting hacked with more and more data being stolen or compromised.
So what is the moral to this story? Back up your files, be sure your antivirus protection is updated, think before you open attachments, have some plan and hope for the best.
Good luck Williee
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