Ransomware is a type of malicious software cyber criminals use to block you from accessing your own data. The digital extortionists encrypt the files on your system and add extensions to the attacked data and hold it hostage until the demanded ransom is paid. Information Age brought this interesting information to our attention in their article, “The fight for your data: mitigating ransomware and insider threats.”

Every leader hopes that they will never have to deal with this in their organization. However, it is a real and present threat to data integrity and business continuity.

Ransomware attacks are believed to have increased in frequency by nearly 50% during the third quarter of 2020. Attacks are getting more sophisticated as organized criminals zone in on high-value data from targeted organizations. Hackers are also finding new ways to exert pressure on their victims to pay by bringing whole IT systems to a halt, or stealing sensitive data and threatening to publish it online.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.