The first publicized ransomware attack of 2017 is a hefty one!<\/p>\n
After returning to school after the holiday break, Los Angeles\u00a0Valley College\u00a0found their computer files were inaccessible.\u00a0 It didn’t take long for the college to determine it was a malicious cyber attack that took down their systems.\u00a0 According to The Washington Times<\/a>, the school notified students the day after the attack was discovered.<\/p>\n The ransomware variant that took down the college’s files is not being released.\u00a0 However the ransom note, left by the hackers, stated the school\u00a0had seven days to pay the ransom or their files would be permanently inaccessible.<\/p>\n The Los Angeles\u00a0Community College District ended up paying the cyber criminals the ransom demand of\u00a0$28,000 to obtain the decryption key.\u00a0 Now, as we all know, paying the ransom is probably one of the worst things you can do.\u00a0 And there are no promises the decryption key will actually work.\u00a0 However according to officials the key, provided by the hackers,\u00a0are indeed unlocking the files.<\/p>\n LA Valley College\u00a0continues to work on decrypting their locked files, as it is a time-consuming process.\u00a0 No reports have been made about additional measures the district or LA Valley College plan to take moving forward to prevent future attacks.<\/p>\n PC Matic encourages all PC\u00a0users, both home and business, to implement a security solution that includes application whitelisting<\/a>.\u00a0 This solution prevents malware, including ransomware, from executing on computers by only allowing tested and deemed trusted applications to run.\u00a0 PC Matic is available for both home <\/a>and business<\/a> users, and includes automated application whitelisting technology.<\/p>\n As the year continues to progress, we will maintain a list of all public ransomware attacks in 2017.\u00a0 You can access that list here<\/a>.\u00a0 We have also created a ransomware map, see below, of the ransomware attacks that have taken place in the U.S. this year.Now What?<\/h4>\n
Moving Forward<\/h4>\n
Other Attacks<\/h4>\n
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