Home Computer Protection: Defending Against Ransomware Attacks

Family photos and other priceless content stored in your home computer could one day be held hostage by a new breed of security threat called "ransomware". Ransomware typically takes the form of a trojan horse that holds personal computer files "hostage" and then then demands a ransom for their safe return.

While such schemes originally targeted large corporations, criminals are increasingly shifting their focus to home users because there is a much smaller risk of being caught, said security company Trend Micro. Ransomware first appeared in May last year with the discovery of Pgpcoder.A, which blackmailed users directly for money after disabling files.