Malware & Ransomware
What to Do in the First Hour After You Suspect a Malware Infection
“`markdown What to Do in the First Hour After You Suspect a Malware Infection Your laptop is running slow, ads are popping up where they shouldn’t, or a file just appeared on your desktop asking for money. Something feels wrong. Your first instinct might be to panic, close everything, and hope it goes away. Don’t. […]
Why You Should Turn On Automatic Updates, Even If They’re Annoying
That little notification pops up right as you’re about to sit down and watch something. “Restart now to install updates.” You click “remind me tomorrow” for the fourth night in a row. It’s annoying, it’s badly timed, and it always seems to want a restart at the exact wrong moment. It’s also one of the […]
Understanding Ransomware: How It Gets In and Why Paying Isn’t a Simple Fix
One morning everything on the computer works fine. By afternoon, every file has a strange new extension, and a text file on the desktop is demanding payment in cryptocurrency to get them back. Nothing looks broken from the outside. The screen still turns on, the mouse still moves. It’s just that none of your files […]
Ransomware and School Networks: What Families Should Know if a District Gets Hit
An email goes out from the district office late at night. Classes are cancelled, or the online gradebook won’t load, or the school’s phone lines are down and nobody can say why. A day or two later, the word “ransomware” shows up in a local news headline. If you’re a parent reading that headline, the […]