▲ A person whose computer was infected by ransomware

 Computer screen infected by ransomware    Ransomware was detected in May 2017 in South Korea, US, and many other countries. So, the world is under emergency. The term "Ransomware" refers to malware that locks up files on a computer with encryption until victims pay a certain amount of money to hackers. All people not only in South Korea but also in other parts of the world are exposed to the attack of ransomware hackers. They lock up data of people to earn money. They use hidden weakness in the Windows operating system and even decades of warnings from security experts simply are not getting through to the public.

 A person whose computer was infected by ransomware    Ransomware are spreading at a rapid rate. We need stronger incentive to protect data with encryption and backups. Then, how is our government taking action? It formed a policy consultative body called Ransomware Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center(RanCERT) to come up with preventative measures by strengthening ties between the public and private sectors to deal with new kinds of virus of ransomware attacks. Another goal is to deal with the global WannaCry ransomware attacks. Also, in the US, there was a panel discussion about how to deal with ransomware increasing consistently in the workshop of the United States' Federal Trade commission. Their conclusion is that we need to collect information of infected ransomware, not to expose one's information when dealing with attackers, and to decide what valuable data is.

▲ Computer screen infected by ransomware

  While ransomware became controversial, even a leading film producer like Disney was no exception. Disney's new movie, "Pirates of the Caribbean", was attacked by ransomware. Business Insider (BI) said, "Hackers are infecting ransomware to Disney and taking the movie hostage. Disney doesn't pay them so far." After that, the CEO of Disney claimed, "Our movie is taken hostage because Disney is infected by ransomware. We will not pay bitcoin to the hackers. We are cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about this problem."

  To protect computer from the virus, we need to use computer vaccine and inactivate our account. If your computer is infected by ransomware, format the computer.

                                                                                                        June 11th 2017 By Eun-hyun