Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), through the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team Coordination Centre, has received reports of an encryption-based cyber-attack, in the form of ransomware that is targeting computers running the Windows operating system.
Individuals and organisations are discouraged from paying the ransom, as this does not guarantee restoration of access.
CA has advised the public to take several precautionary measures to prevent their systems from falling victim to the attack.
The measures include:
- Ensure that you keep an up-to date backup of your computer files offline. This will ensure that in the event your computer is attacked, you can restore your files from the backup.
- Ensure that your computer’s operating system is updated. This is especially for users running the windows operating system in their computers, which is the main target of this particular cyber attack.
- Ensure that your antivirus is updated.
- Avoid clicking on links or opening attachments or emails from people or sources you don’t know or companies you don’t do business with
- Be alert when opening emails especially if they contain links or attachments. You should also take special attention of any email attachment that advises you enable macros to view its content. Unless you trust the source, do not enable macros and instead delete the email immediately and permanently.
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that infects a computer and restricts access to the infected computer until a ransom is paid to unlock it. The ransomware virus, which goes by the name WannaCry or WannaCrypt0r or WannaDecrypt0r, has been reported to have infected tens of thousands of computers in many countries around the world and continues to spread.
Once a computer is infected with the ransomware virus, it tries to infect other computers in the same network. “Individuals and organisations are discouraged from paying the ransom, as it does not guarantee access will be restored,” says the CAK.