From the course: Security Tips

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Understanding and preventing ransomware

Understanding and preventing ransomware

From the course: Security Tips

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Understanding and preventing ransomware

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- [Instructor] We've talked a little bit about encrypting files and disks so far in this series, and I've mentioned that encryption is used to protect data. But encryption can be used for evil purposes as well. If you recall from the early episode about file encryption, I mentioned that if you don't remember your encryption password, you won't be able to access your encrypted files. And that's basically how ransomware works. Ransomware is malware that encrypts files on your computer using the password known only to the attacker, and it tries to get you to pay for the password to decrypt the files and get them back. Ransomware holds your data for ransom. Ransomware can come in many forms, from email attachments, to legitimate-looking software. In most cases, ransomware isn't specifically targeted. A lot of ransomware comes as an attachment to emails sent out widely to lists of millions of addresses. The sender hopes that someone will click on their malware and have their files…

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