Ransomware Virus

Ransomware Virus

Ransomware Virus

In the past few years many viruses have been developed which created very strong generation of new viruses, among these viruses we find “Ransomware Virus" this virus is very dangerous and very strong, that's why we’ll take about it, how it works and how dangerous it’s on your laptops?

How Ransomware virus works?

The Ransomware virus works by encrypting the data on the victim's computer, and locking the victim from entering to his own data, then asking for a “ransom" to remove this encryption, while the victim is only given a certain time if it's exceeded the victim will risk losing the data on his computer for good. In many cases where the victim actually pay the ransom, the criminal “virus owner" delete the data anyway, why? Simply, because he can!

Which is tough about this virus is that your own data, which you badly need, is stored there in the hard disk in front of you but unfortunately you can't access to it, and this makes the victim feels helpless, and unable to do any action without getting the approval from the criminal.

Types of Ransomware virus

There are many types of ransomware virus, as it comes in different sizes and shapes, but they all have the “ransom" thing in common, and these types are:

         ·       Lockers: it's the kind of ransomware virus which affect the operating system of your computer, and locks you from your computer, and prevents you from accessing to your own applications and files.

         ·       Doxware: also known as “leakware", this type of ransomware virus works by preventing you from accessing to your own data, and above which, the virus threatens to publish the sensitive files and photos which may exist on your computer in public, which is horrible as many people store very secret and important files on their computers.

         ·       Crypto malware: it's the most known kind of these viruses, thanks to the worldwide attack in 2017, which caused great damage to thousands of computers around the world.

         ·        Scareware: this is a very dangerous kind of ransomware viruses, as it acts as a cleaning tool or an antivirus, and once it's installed on the computer it starts sending you repeated annoying messages until you pay money to stop it from appearing on your screen, or asking you for money to solve the problems which the virus claims to find on your computer.

         ·       Raas: it's an abbreviation for “Ransomware As A Service", it's the type of viruses which takes advantage of your computer and use it as a station to launch new ransomware viruses to attack new computers, and collecting money from the victims, all of that in exchange for decrypting the data.

How to deal with Ransomware virus

There's a list of things to do to avoid your computer being attacked by Ransomware virus, and it's:

         ·       Depend on trusted security software to help secure your own important files and images.

         ·       Always update your own operating system, and the security software that you use.

         ·       Don't open the attachments sent to you by people that you don't know.

         ·       Use an external hard disk to pack up your data on it.

         ·       Use the clouds to store the important data, but still not very efficient.