Police warn of dangers of ransom ware

At the weekly police press briefing on Wednesday at the Police Administration Building in Port of Spain, Sgt Dale Joseph and PC Candy Saunders- Alfred, both of the Cyber Crime Unit, indicated that ransom ware which is a programme that prevents or limits users from accessing their systems until a ransom is paid, has been rampant in Europe and TT cannot count itself immune, given the global inter-connectivity afforded by the internet.

In Europe, over 200,000 computers were infected with the malicious programme which is also called “Wanna Cry”.

Major companies like Renault and NHS were practically crippled by the malware.

In light of the recent upsurge in this new method of crime, the police service thought it prudent to warn the public.

“Ransom ware has been a growing trend over the past two years, locally and regionally and this is just a culmination, a grand reveal to the wider world of just how big a threat it is to our quality of life,” Sgt Joseph said.

Ransom ware features unbreakable encryption which means it has the ability to encrypt all file types from documents to pictures, videos, audio files and others stored in the device.

People using Cyber Ransom would usually request payment in Bitcoins, because online currencies are harder to track.

Criminals would usually demand a small payment from the victim to regain access to files, but the extortion would continue as long as one has the programme on one’s computer.

Usually, the ransom payments have a time-limit, to add another level of psychological constraint to this extortion scheme.

Going over the deadline typically means that the ransom will increase, but it can also mean that the data will be destroyed and lost forever. Ransom Ware can also go undetected by traditional anti virus programmes, so police are advising that people be particularly vigilant when downloading or opening files sent to their computer via email or social media. Police advised that people refrain from opening spam emails or emails from unknown senders or to open any link or attachments from spam emails.

Police also advised against downloading or installing pirated software, music or movie files as these may contain malicious applications which would make your device vulnerable to attack. Police also said that people should use ad blockers to defend against ads with malicious software.

As for anti virus protection, it is recommended that people buy reliable, paid anti virus products that include automatic update modules and real-time