I want to go
under the radar again this morning. We all have heard stories about criminal
gangs from Russia taking control of computer systems. A substantial ransom is
demanded to give back control of the computers to their rightful owners. Right now,
in South Africa, a major children's hospital is being victimized in this way.
In Iowa at this moment, the New Cooperative of Fort Dodge, Iowa is locked out
of its computer system. A ransom of $5.9 million US is demanded to give the
cooperative the encryption key to retake control of their computer system, If
they refuse to pay and get around the computer problem, all their private data
will be released. Here is an article if you are curious:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/21/new-cooperative-hack-ransomware/
Ransomware is a serious problem worldwide.
We have a huge team of highly qualified professionals working to counter this
threat. I'm sure that a lot of cases of this type go unreported. Organizations
hush it up and pay the ransom.
If we refuse to pay anytime such an attack
is mounted, it will take the economic incentive out of this sort of criminal
activity. We need to publicly identify the actors doing this and make their
lives difficult.
I was a victim of a ransomware attack with
$5,000 US in bitcoins demanded to give me back control of my computer. I do not
pay blackmail. I went to a specialized computer firm and paid $249.00 US. I got
back control of my computer.
We must be careful of Covid-19 that killed
over 3,000 people in the US yesterday. We also must be very careful with our
computers. Please have the most up-to-date virus protection, malware
protection, etc. Be extremely cautious about clicking on links.
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