“Your personal files are encrypted!” glares the headline on a red pop-up window. The text that follows warns the user that all of the photos, videos and documents stored on the computer were encrypted with a secret encryption key. Unless they pay a $500 ransom, the virus would destroy those files permanently.

Words like this must have struck fear into the hearts of IT administrators at the Midlothian, IL police department when they came up on a police computer in January 2015. Lacking any solid technical alternative, the department paid a $500 ransom to unknown attackers to restore access to critical files.

Read the full story: Ransomware: Your Data Held Hostage

Published May 14, 2015 in Certification Magazine