Ransomware: What You Need to Know

 I don't want to get all super-techy geek on you, but I do want to share information about an important topic with you.

Answer these questions for yourself:

• Do you open attachments on emails or click on links in emails from senders you don't know?
• Do you open attachments on emails that look like they're from someone you know, or do you click on links in emails that look like they're from someone you know, but you weren't expecting the email?
• Do you skip running updates on your computer?
• Do you click on pop-up ads or other ads you see on websites or social media?
• Do you download files from file sharing sites?
• Do you have your passwords for your email, logins, and/or wifi written down somewhere easy to find?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be putting yourself and your network at risk of a pretty scary kind of malware called ransomware.

Malware is any kind of file that gets opened and installed on your computer that is designed to harm your computer or files in some way. It might put a virus on your computer that replicates itself and sends itself out to everyone in your electronic address book. It might add spyware to your device that can see what sites you visit to send you spam, or maybe it will capture your keystrokes to steal logins or credit card information from you. Ransomware is especially scary because it basically locks up your access to your files and devices and won't give you access back until you pay some sort of ransom, often a large amount of money and in the form of cryptocurrency.

This all sounds scary enough if it happens on your home computer, but it's more likely that it would happen here at work. In fact, schools and universities are among the most popular targets for ransomware right now. Sometimes schools have less stringent security on their systems than, say, a big corporation like Wal-Mart. Also, students (and sadly, sometimes teachers, too) are prone to click on things that they don't know what they're clicking on, which can be a really risky behavior! In addition, the data from students is especially valuable for identity theft because kids are blank slates with financial and credit histories, so they can do all sorts of nefarious things with a child's information and the child won't even realize they are in any kind of financial ruin until it's too late.

So, what can we do here at school in particular to keep the district as safe as possible from a ransomware attack? Here are a ew suggestions:

• Be careful with email -- don't open attachments or click links unless you know what they are. Teach this to students, too!
• Run your computer updates. This goes for phones, too. Those Windows, Chrome, and iOS updates often contain security fixes and updates. If you don't run those updates, your device and the whole school network is at risk.
• Keep those passwords secure! This goes for kids, too. I know that taping them to Chromebooks makes it easy for the kids to log in, but if a Chromebook goes missing, that login is going to make it super easy for someone to do some bad things. If you or a student feels your password has been compromised, contact David right away.
• Save your work in Google Drive. if you're still saving to the hard drive of your computer or the H drive, you could risk losing access to your files. Google Drive is cloud-based (which does pose its own security risks), and it has numerous failsafes to keep the data stored there safe and backed up.
• Don't download or install any software on your computer without checking with someone from the tech department first.
• Don't click on ads.

Here's a news story that talks about a school that fell under a ransomware attack. It's pretty scary!

Here's another, way geekier video for you. Just watch the first minute or two (after that, it gets super duper computer nerdy). This video shows why it's risky to click links -- because anyone can set up a fake link and take control of your computer. And yes, this video shows step by step EXACTLY how to do it. While it would require some technical expertise, don't be fooled: there are a LOT of people who would watch this video and know what this guy is talking about. And there are plenty of kids who understand it, too.

Okay, time to share! Leave a comment here about what you are going to do to stay safe! I've got fun stickers for all you commenters!