By James Wood

Police issue malware warning after local business suffers cyberattack

Jul 7, 2017 | 7:59 AM

The Medicine Hat Police Service want residents to watch out for malware.

According to a news release issued by the service on Thursday, a local business was compromised by malware on July 5, 2017. The business, which is not named in the release, was told to pay $200,000 or be at risk of losing all of their computer information.

The Police Service Technical Crimes Unit was able to work with the business, and prevent the company’s computer systems from being lost.

The police advised that protection from malware is best accomplished by keeping anti-virus programs up to date, avoiding opening unknown email attachments, and staying wary of links in emails from people or companies that the recipient has not had contact with.

“Despite all the efforts of IT professionals and other anti-virus companies, malware and ransomware still finds ways into computers,” states the release.

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“Some malware can be removed by a skilled IT professional other sophisticated malware is essentially impossible to remove without the unlock code due to its level of encryption. If your data is important you should make periodic backups of your data so that your computer can be restored easily. If one does decide to pay the ransom, which may vary from a few hundred dollars to millions of dollars, there is no guarantee you will receive the unlock code. Remember, these are criminals you are dealing with. The best practice is to maintain data back ups.”