Ransomware and other nastyness

Culture | August 31st, 2016

By Chuck Solly

rcsolly@gmail.com

The business computer world has this problem called Ransomware. Hackers want to extort money from businesses by a denial-of-access attack that prevents computer users from accessing their own files. The files are encrypted and the bad guys have the password to un-encrypt them. These Hackers are generally after businesses that will pay to get their files and records back.

So how are the bad guys getting into the company’s network in the first place? Unfortunately this is very simple. Here is the scenario: You come into work one morning, sit down at your computer and while checking your email, you discover that your mother has sent you an email with an attachment. Oh Boy, Mom sent me something! You open the attachment and release malware on the company network that finds its way to the servers and encrypts all of the files!

The moral of the story is don’t open unexpected email attachments!!!

Call or email your mother and ask if she sent you something. If you are the one who unleashed the malware you might want to be sure your resume is up to date!

The effect of Ransomware on a company’s computer system can be devastating not to mention the, costs to get the files back, lost business/customers and hiring the IT guy to come in and nurse the problem.

Bitcoin

The bad guys demand payment in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a form of digital currency, created and held electronically. No one controls it. Bitcoins aren’t printed, like dollars or euros – they’re produced by people, and increasingly businesses, running computers all around the world, using software that solves mathematical problems.

Bitcoin works with an unprecedented level of transparency that most people are not used to dealing with. All Bitcoin transactions are public, traceable, and permanently stored in the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin addresses are the only information used to define where bitcoins are allocated and where they are sent.

These addresses are created privately by each user's wallets. However, once addresses are used, they become tainted by the history of all transactions they are involved with. Anyone can see the balance and all transactions of any address. Since users usually have to reveal their identity in order to receive services or goods, Bitcoin addresses cannot remain fully anonymous.

Stolen Bitcoins can sit in your online “wallet” forever but it is nearly impossible for a bad guy to use or launder these “pieces of the Internet” (my term) without getting caught. In fact, Law Enforcement is (finally) catching up to the hackers and they have made some arrests.

My advice is to stay away from Bitcoins for a while. Maybe the system will stabilize in the future or maybe it will simply go away. It is easy to get a credit card for your business to use online. Paypal or some of the other online pay services will suffice for payment to or from your business. Don’t forget to pay attention to your credit card statements weekly and be aware of who is using the card. This is my standard advice to small businesses as well as individuals.

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