Main Content Description of Threat Ransomware threatens victims by extorting both businesses and consumers by crippling the computer system preventing you from accessing your data until a ransom is paid usually in Bitcoin If failed to pay the ransom within a timeframe files will automatically be deleted Most of the times victims have no idea of being infected until a ransom message displayed on the screen and crippled the system According to a report by Symantec In the first six months of 2017 Symantec blocked just over 319 000 ransomware infections If this infection rate continued for the full year 2017 would be a significant increase over 2016 when a total of 470 000 infections were blocked 1 this has shown that ransomware attacks are still on the rise With technologies advancement users are vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks Causes of ransomware attack Lack of employees training Employees are like a key pass for a ransomware attack to happen in the organisation Majority of them are not trained which explains why they could not recognise scams malicious links and emails that may contain viruses yet they are frequently exposed to sophisticated phishing attacks Malicious websites web ads Now with everyone relying on the internet for their source of information Internet users often surf the internet without thinking of consequences click as and when they like because of their limited knowledge on possible cyber attacks