What To Do In The Event Of A Hit

When a user gets a ransom message from hackers, Cobb said the first thing to do is reach out to the IT department, or whoever is in charge of security, to alert them. Second, he advised users unplug their machines and disconnect them from the network to prevent the message from spreading to other devices. There are remediation measures that can be attempted in case of a successful attack, Cobb said, but more businesses rely on an effective backup and disaster recovery strategy being in place beforehand.

Still open for debate is whether a business should pay the ransom, Cobb said. While there are some cases that a business would be forced to pay to get its data back, Cobb said it’s best to use that as a last resort, as there are "no guarantees" that the hacker will deliver the encryption key.