{"id":53971,"date":"2016-08-07T00:40:59","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T00:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=53971"},"modified":"2016-09-16T18:15:52","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T18:15:52","slug":"texas-third-largest-county-attacked-ransomware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/texas-third-largest-county-attacked-ransomware\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas’ Third Largest County Attacked By Ransomware"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tarrant County was the most recent victim of ransomware…<\/p>\n

Tarrant County, the third largest county <\/a>in Texas, was the most recent victim of ransomware.\u00a0 Luckily the county reacted quickly and damages were minimized.\u00a0 The county noticed an issue when an employee noticed their files were locked.\u00a0 An emergency computer incident team was able to isolate the employees files, to ensure the ransomware did not spread throughout the network.\u00a0 They then restored the files and had everything back up and running as normal within an hour.<\/p>\n

It is not being disclosed what type of ransomware attacked Tarrant County.\u00a0 It has been reported by Star Telegram<\/a> that the county did not pay any form of ransom to recover the files.<\/p>\n

The county certainly went about the attack in the most appropriate way possible.\u00a0 The response team was fast acting, and due to their quick response the negative results were mitigated.<\/p>\n

If you find yourself victim to a ransomware attack, we encourage you to follow these five steps:<\/p>\n

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  1. Do not pay the ransom<\/b> \u2013 If you do, you\u2019re just giving the hackers a reason to keep hacking.\u00a0 Use your back up files to restore your systems.\u00a0 Again, don\u2019t pay!!<\/li>\n
  2. Inform the FBI<\/strong> \u2013 By informing the FBI they can investigate to potentially bring legal action against the hacker.\u00a0 All cyber criminal activity should be reported to the federal IC3 agency.\u00a0 You can file a complaint with them here<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. Notify your current security software company<\/strong> \u2013 You also MUST inform your security software company.\u00a0 If they didn\u2019t know they missed a malicious attack, they cannot stop it in the future.\u00a0 Also, many anti-virus software companies share their blacklist, or the list of known bad files.\u00a0 So by sharing it with your software company, they then share it with others; saving thousands of people from falling victim to the same attack that just got you.<\/li>\n
  4. Educate yourselves and your employees <\/strong>\u2013 Many times we attend one training, or listen to one webinar and consider ourselves educated on the matter.\u00a0 This cannot be further from the truth.\u00a0 Continued education on current cyber security threats is imperative.\u00a0 We recommend our friends at KnowBe4 <\/a>for both personal and enterprise training on cyber security.\u00a0 As always, all PC Matic home\u00a0security subscribers are offered a free cyber security training<\/a> through KnowBe4 as well.<\/li>\n
  5. Reevaluate your security software protection<\/strong> \u2013 If your security software failed you, perhaps you should look for an alternative security option.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0United States\u00a0Computer Emergency Readiness Team\u00a0(US-CERT)<\/a> strongly advises using a whitelist security technology.\u00a0 For personal uses, PC Matic<\/a> home protection offers superior protection with advanced whitelisting technology.\u00a0 For enterprise use, there is PC Matic Pro<\/a>, which offers advanced security protection with proprietary whitelisting technology.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We have also generated an interactive map that includes all of the ransomware attacks within the United States that have occurred this year. <\/p>\n