Ransomware is the one that ends with a message on your own screen explaining that your photographs, your documents and your records are still there but you can't have them back.
The government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey found ransomware reported by around 1% of UK businesses last year. That sounds reassuring right up to the point it happens to you. It's the rare-and-catastrophic category rather than the common-and-survivable one, and the entire distance between those two outcomes is a backup you tested before you needed it.
The vocabulary is scarier than the subject. Malware is just software written to exploit you, and it only ever wants one of three things: your money, your data, or your machine's processing power. Once you know which, the defence stops being mysterious.
What you get
The Malware Field Guide. Six types explained in a breath each. Virus and worm, trojan, ransomware, spyware, adware, scareware. Enough to recognise what you're looking at rather than lumping it all under "a virus".
The Decision Matrix. Judge a risky file or action quickly, and the four CORE habits that shut the routes malware actually depends on.
Seven Clarity Scripts. What to do with an unexpected attachment, a shouting "your PC is infected" pop-up, and any app you're about to install. Including the one that matters most: exactly what to do while facing a live ransomware demand, written to be followed when you're not thinking clearly.
Six self-tests. Including the one nearly everybody skips, which is pulling a real file back out of your backup to prove the backup works. An untested backup is a hope, not a plan.
The four routes in
Malware can't appear from nowhere. It arrives by a bad link, an infected attachment, a fake app from outside the official stores, or a piece of old software nobody updated. If you've done Course 03 and Course 06 you're already closing three of those four without having thought about it. This course closes the fourth and adds the backup that makes a slip recoverable rather than final.
This is for you if
- You couldn't confidently say what separates a virus from a trojan from ransomware
- You have no automatic backup running, or you have one and have never tested a restore
- You've seen an "infected" pop-up and weren't completely certain it was fake
- You want to know what you'd actually do if a ransom demand appeared tomorrow
- You'd rather have calm preparation than another instruction to "install antivirus"
By the last page
You'll name the main malware types on sight, recognise the four routes in, spot the signs of an infection early, and have a working backup you have personally tested.
Course details
- Format: downloadable PDF, 13 pages
- Time to complete: 45 to 60 minutes
- Series: Course 07 of 20, GhostNet Cyber Fundamentals
- Track: Track B, Threats and How to Spot Them (Course 2 of 5)
- Prerequisites: none, works standalone and builds on Courses 03 and 06
- Works on: any device, any operating system
- Level: complete beginner, no technical background needed
Buy with confidence
Every course comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If it isn't useful, email us within 30 days and we'll refund you in full. You don't need to give a reason.
Where to go next
Course 08, Social Engineering, covers the persuasion that delivers most malware in the first place. Course 10, What to Do If You've Been Hacked, is the full recovery playbook this guide keeps pointing at. Or take Threats and How to Spot Them, the five-course bundle covering Courses 06 to 10, for £100 instead of £150.
