In this article we will discuss:
 - What is ransomware?
 - How ransomware works
 - 6 ways to avoid ransomware attacks

Hackers have found out that there are industries such as the medical field that spend a minuscule percentage of their budget on IT security.

Hackers, malware, and other cyber threats are constantly searching for the slightest weakness to exploit. Last week, hackers broke into the largest hospital network in Singapore, one of the world's leading financial centers, and stole 1.5 million health records, including those of the Prime Minister.

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security said that foreign hackers broke into hundreds of supposedly secure computer networks belonging to U.S. electric utility companies. Hackers accessed the control rooms and had the power to potentially cause nationwide blackouts.

A single hour of downtime costs the average small company $8,000, and costs a midsize company $74,000, according to a study by Infrascale. Considering that it takes the average business 18.5 hours to recover after a disaster, the cost implications are considerable.

Ransomware infects more than 100,000 computers around the world every day, according to FBI statistics, and victims are paying more than $25 billion a year to cyber criminals. Yet one out of five businesses that pay the ransom never get their files back.

Your computer network is only as safe as the least-protected device connected to it. An employee’s phone, a client’s laptop, or a service provider's computer may have security flaws that could leave your computer network vulnerable to malicious attacks.