Hit by ransomware: lesson learned
Mike's advice to others
Get proper ransomware protection. Otherwise, you will find yourself faced with three difficult questions: do I spend big money paying the fraudster; employ costly support services to salvage your files; or elect to lose your valuable data, photos, etc. and suffer the consequences.
Mike F.
Age 71, Canada, business owner
The story
Two years ago, I received notification on my computer screen – I was subjected to a ransomware attack. Fortunately, the attack was on my second computer, and I was able to delete all of the material on it without financial loss. Had the attack been on my main computer where I had $20,000 in billing records that had not as yet been invoiced, it would have been a major disaster. I would not have been able to retrace all orders and would have risked upsetting clients that had already paid invoices.
The limited damage I experienced was purely a matter of luck and had nothing to do with proper planning on my part. I immediately deleted the affected records (to reduce the risk of further contamination) and equipped all of my computers with ransomware protection.
