Ransomware is the Trojan Horse of data destruction. It’s a vicious type of malware that creeps into your computer system and literally paralyzes it, locking up your files, videos, business documents – everything on the hard drive, really – and then demands a monetary ransom to unlock it. It’s a serious type of cyber extortion that has been around for years but has seen a recent uptick in activity, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Most malware of this type manages to encrypt or encode all of the files on infected computers. Some of these programs often claim to be from governmental or even law enforcement agencies and use scare tactics to warn the user that illegal or compromising material has been found on the computer. [Read more…]