14 DAY TRIAL // An IT company in Yorkshire county in the UK helped at least four businesses avoid loss of information caused by malicious encryption carried out by the CrytoLocker ransomware.
Employees of Oughtred and Harrison firm offering IT services said that the companies affected by the crypto-malware were conducting their business on Windows XP.
However, the systems benefited from up-to-date antivirus software solutions, showing that despite the administrator’s reluctance to move to a more secure operating system, they did not neglect the protection of the systems.
Antivirus products did not keep the malicious software out of the computer, so an unauthorized encryption of important data could be completed unhindered.
James Smith, Oughtred and Harrison's director told Hull Daily Mail that “many companies are at a risk of having their data compromised as they are continuing to use Windows XP.”
Fortunately, these businesses had a file backup system in place, which allowed recovery of the information.
CryptoLocker is generally delivered through malicious emails, and this is most likely how it got on the systems of the affected companies. It starts encrypting the data without any warning, and once the operation is complete, it shows a ransom message to the user, demanding the payment within a specific time interval.
Keeping backups of the important data on the system in locations secluded from the main system is the best way to avoid paying the ransom fee in case of crypto-malware infection.
Upgrading the operating system is also recommended for increased security. Newer versions benefit from better protection mechanisms, some of them not being available in XP.
“A business may see their system running as well as it always has done day-to-day, but with no new security patches from Microsoft, they run the risk of suffering a serious breach of their security.
“You won't see many businesses with a 14-year-old company car outside their premises, but many are happy for the system that holds all the key information around their business, and is essential to running their day-to-day operations, to be so old,” Smith said to the Hull publication.