Hampshire Constabulary is working to support the National Crime Agency (NCA) and City Of London Police, who are leading on the response to the international co-ordinated Wanna Cry ransomware attack. Whilst the attack is very much under control at this stage, it is reasonable to expect that new variants of this ransomware may surface, which is why it is vital that you take action to protect your organisation now. Just taking a few simple steps can greatly increase your defences against ransomware. The three most important steps to take are:
1. Ensure you are running the latest version of software and operating system available and install system and app updates on all devices as soon as they become available;
2. Make sure that you have anti-virus or anti-malware software on all devices and keep it updated;
3. Back-up regularly: create regular back-ups of your important files to a device (e.g. external hard drive) that isn’t left connected to your network – because any malware such as ransomware could spread to that, too.
Further excellent advice and technical guidance has been issued by the National Cyber Security Centre and can be found here:
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/ransomware-latest-ncsc-guidance
If you have been affected by ransomware, please report it straight away via the cybercrime reporting portal at Action Fraud via this link:
http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report-a-fraud-including-online-crime
For more advice and guidance, please follow @HCCyberProtect on Twitter.
Hampshire Constabulary’s Cyber Protect team can be contacted via e-mail: DIICyberProtect@hampshire.pnn.police.uk
