Similar to the shakedowns you see in mob movies where innocent shop owners are forced to pay “protection money,” deploying ransomware is a means of extortion. Computer hackers install it on your network to seize control of your company’s precious confidential data, then demand payment for its safe return.

Let’s face it, keeping yourself free from online threats can be a pain: using different passwords for every site, changing them every three months, using advanced encryption, the list goes on and on. You either end up paranoid of being online or give up altogether.

If your computer is infected with ransomware, your antivirus software probably won’t detect it until it’s too late.

Hackers use the malware to encrypt your computer files and demand money in exchange for freeing those contents. The attacks are on the rise.

WordPress is an amazing open source platform that is favored by individuals and business users worldwide due to its ease of use, simplicity and flexibility. However, given that it is the most widely used content management system, it is also the most vulnerable platform out there.

Good cyber security, much like the best NBA defenses, must be strong and able to stop threats from every which way. For the Milwaukee Bucks, their on-court and cyber security defense could both use a little practice. Yahoo! Sports reported that the Milwaukee Bucks sent out the names, addresses, Social Security numbers, compensation information and dates of birth of players as part of a spoofed email attack.

On the popular Discovery Channel program “Mythbusters,” hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman take a legend and deconstruct it to see whether its long-held beliefs are legitimate. They’ve busted all kinds of myths, from Jimmy Hoffa being buried under Giants Stadium (not true) to the ability to kill someone without a trace using an ice bullet (the bullet vaporizes as soon as the trigger’s pulled).

One tall tale they haven’t tackled is that Macs are impervious to malware, so you needn’t worry about cybersecurity solutions.

One of the biggest fears security experts have may be coming true: self-replicating ransomware. Viruses that have the ability to copy and spread themselves to new systems are nothing new, but until now ransomware attacks have been targeted campaigns.

An updated version of the CryptXXX ransomware – that again renders decryption tools ineffective and has the ability for network share encryption – has been spotted in the wild.

Proofpoint researchers said in a blog post that CryptXXX v3.1000 was found in the wild last week.

As more and more content management services are released to aid SMBs in online marketing, security risks also increase. One such helper is the image processing service ImageMagick. And while it has proven useful to countless businesses, it is now something you should be concerned about from a security standpoint.

Picture this: you start your computer and wait. And wait. And wait some more. When your desktop finally shows its face, things don’t get any better. Your Internet is sluggish, your programs are taking forever to load, and your cursor is dragging 20 seconds behind your mouse.