{"id":20475,"date":"2017-12-14T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=20475"},"modified":"2019-11-15T06:43:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T11:43:00","slug":"north-carolina-ransomware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/north-carolina-ransomware\/20475\/","title":{"rendered":"The case of the county-killing ransomware"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ransomware has been a plague on networks the world over for several years now, infecting businesses, hospitals, municipalities \u2014 essentially, any organizations large enough to pay the hefty ransoms that crooks require of victims to retrieve their stolen files are potential targets. At Kaspersky Lab, we\u2019ve seen the threat evolve from one that focused on individuals to one that increasingly targets businesses and larger organizations. In fact, a recent report<\/a> on ransomware found that 26% of businesses had been hit with ransomware in 2017 alone.<\/p>\n

But this week\u2019s cybernews included reports of a particularly remarkable ransomware infection \u2014 one that effectively took down an entire county in North Carolina<\/a>. The ransomware attack has forced officials in Mecklenburg County to quarantine 48 of the 500 servers the municipality relies on for daily government operations. The hackers have asked for a $23,000 ransom, which the county manager says will not be paid.<\/p>\n

The attack has left county workers using paper and pen to handle tax payments, jail services, child support, and the myriad other municipal services they manage \u2014 fallout that may continue for many days or even weeks. And despite the county presumably having backups of its data, it is difficult to know what personal and confidential information from the county\u2019s million-plus inhabitants has been compromised and could be used for malicious purposes.<\/p>\n

The infection started with just one click, an employee opening a malicious e-mail attachment. Then everything spun out of control.<\/p>\n

So, what can organizations do to better prepare for and prevent ransomware attacks? Here are five great points of advice to prepare for and respond to ransomware.<\/p>\n