RANSOMWARE POSES INCREASING THREAT TO COMPANIES, PUBLIC BODIES AND COMPUTER USERS

ON January 29 this year, the IT systems of Lincolnshire County Council – one of the UK’s larger local authorities - were shut down by a ‘ransomware’ attack, as a precaution while the attack was investigated. Staff went back to using pens and paper after around 300 computers were seized up, spewing messages that money needed to be handed over to hackers or these computers would remain unusable. Attacks such as this, involving unsolicited infections of malware that locks all files in a system or computer and send users messages offering to unlock the files ...


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