CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS TRAINING ABOUT MALWARE
THE RANSOMWARE ATTACK
Malware is a general term for harmful programs and code. There are many forms of malware, including viruses, Trojan Horses, worms, and spyware. A more recent form of malware has been rising dramatically — ransomware.
Ransomware is one of the most pernicious forms of malware — it works by encrypting a user’s files and demanding a ransom payment to decrypt the files.
Ransomware began to emerge in 2009, and it has been increasing ever since. Ransomware was recently ranked as the number one threat involving mobile malware.
According to one estimate, “at least $5 million is extorted from ransomware victims each year.”
In 2013, a new breed of ransomware emerged with the creation of CryptoLocker. According to one news account, in just six months, CryptoLocker infected half a million victims: “The attack was highly effective, even though only about 1.3 percent of victims paid the ransom. The FBI estimated last year that the extortionists had swindled some $27 million from users who did pay.”
CryptoLocker was eventually defeated, but it spawned a new breed of ransomware that continues to plague users today. Ransomware continues to evolve, and as it does, it is becoming more and more pernicious.
About this Training Program
This short information security training program (~5 minutes) consists of an interactive cartoon vignette about malware. The program is highly interactive, and trainees engage with a scenario involving ransomware.
Although this program involves ransomware, the lessons it teaches apply broadly to all malware.
The program focuses on how to avoid having malware installed on one’s computer and what to do (and not to do) if this ever happens.
Also available in Arabic, Korean and Italian.
Learning Objectives
- Become familiar with how hackers can use email to infect a user’s computer
- Learn what malware and ransomware are and how hackers use them
- Understand the consequences that can occur when employees don’t follow good data security practices and notify IT when problems happen
Click here for a listing of all our information security awareness courses
Please Contact Us to Evaluate this Program or Others
We can provide you with a login so you can evaluate the programs.
About TeachPrivacy and Our Training Philosophy
TeachPrivacy was founded by Professor Daniel J. Solove, the leading expert on privacy and data security law. He is deeply involved in the creation of all training programs because he believes that training works best when made by subject-matter experts and by people with extensive teaching experience.
According to Professor Solove: “Great training isn’t about slickness or tricks. It is about teaching. The goal is to make people understand, care, and remember. Great training is made with genuine passion – to make people love training, it must be made with love. Excellent substance is essential. The material must be explained clearly, understandably, and concretely. The content must be short and to the point – and it must be engaging. Slickness and gimmicks can’t compensate for lackluster substance.”
TeachPrivacy provides privacy awareness training, information security awareness training, phishing training, HIPAA training, FERPA training, PCI training, as well as training on many other privacy and security topics.
Professor Solove is a law professor at George Washington University Law School. He has taught privacy law every year since 2000, has published 10 books and more than 50 articles, including the leading textbook on information privacy law and a short guidebook on the subject. His LinkedIn blog has more than 1 million followers. Click here for more information about Professor Solove.