You will no doubt have heard about the current Ransomware which has crippled Windows computers in the NHS in England and Scotland.

What we know so far:

Only Windows based computers are at risk.

It does not seem to come from a spam or spoofed email, although continue to treat these with utmost suspicion. The means of original infection remains unknown.

Only large organisations have been targeted so far.

Not many ransoms have been paid ($54,000 as of this morning, so in global terms not a lot).

There have not been large scale infections of home computers or networks.

What to do:

Have an up to date, working, tested backup, and disconnect the backup media when it isn’t in use. If it is connected to your PC and you are infected, it is encrypted too.

Make sure you have all Windows updates installed and up to date.

If you are running an older, unsupported version of Windows (Windows 7 is supported until January 2020, Windows 8.1 until January 2018, Windows 10 until October 2025, anything else has no current support) please seriously consider moving to a newer platform to avoid risk or catastrophic data loss.

If you are infected, turn the PC off, and bring it to us. Do not pay the ransom.

If you are feeling especially paranoid, turn your router off and stay offline until there is more information on this threat (this is what the Health Service Executive in Ireland have basically done).

Contact us or help or advice on anything mentioned above.

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