Ransomware has been much in the news since the WannaCry attack on May 12, 2017.
The WannaCry ransomware attack was a worldwide cyberattack by the WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm, which targeted computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system by encrypting data and demanding ransom payments in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
The attack started on Friday, 12 May 2017, and within a day was reported to have infected more than 230,000 computers in over 150 countries. Parts of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), Spain’s Telefónica, FedEx and Deutsche Bahn were hit, along with many other countries and companies worldwide.
Best practices to guard against such attacks apply to both personal and business computers. In particular, that you keep the Microsoft Windows operating system up-to-date (Windows Update). Also, as mentioned previously, many of these attacks start with hacking your “head” rather than your hardware — your PC — via targeted phishing email messages.
This Malwarebytes Labs blog “How to protect your business from ransomware” post has a useful summary infographic on this topic. The Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (PDF) version is included below.