If you’ve never experienced ransomware taking over your network, consider yourself lucky. Cyber criminals are good at what they do, which includes disguising files and links to look completely harmless. Once you click on it, your computer and network are infected with malicious software to the point you may never see your valuable data again. A managed service provider can help retrieve your data, but you need to be aware of the steps to take in the event your network is infected by ransomware.
Alert Law Enforcement
Law enforcement may not be able to do much for your situation at this point, but they still need to be alerted. Ransomware criminals must be exposed immediately because they usually move on to their next criminal act before they can get caught. Law enforcement may be able to help prevent similar cyber attacks by making it known they’re focusing on these criminals.
Remove Computers from the Network
Only one computer may be infected with ransomware now, but it’s possible for it to spread to any other computer on the same network. Most IT consulting services suggest unplugging the infected computer from your network immediately and informing the rest of the users about the possibility of the ransomware. Having one computer with compromised data is bad enough; you don’t want an entire network of computers to have the same problem.
Decide Whether to Pay the Ransom
Before you make a decision to pay the ransom, you should have already taken the advice of IT consulting services and backed up your data from the network. The decision to not pay the ransom is much easier if you know your data was fully backed up recently.
Even if you pay the ransom, you don’t truly know if you will get your files back. These are criminals you’re paying so they could simply take your money and keep the files encrypted. Your files literally are held at ransom and there’s no guarantee you’ll see any of them again.
Having the right IT security services in place will help prevent against ransomware. Contact us before your computer or network gets infected.
