If you’ve been anywhere near the internet lately, you’ll probably have heard the term “ransomware” mentioned. You may already be familiar with it. The technique used by hackers — encrypting a victim’s devices and demanding a ransom payment to unlock them — was used on the Irish health IT system recently, as well as Colonial Pipeline in the U.S. The latter ended in a $5 million payment being made.
But let’s back up a minute. How widespread is ransomware, and what are the real-world consequences of its use?
These are the questions Trevor Noah tackled on The Daily Show on Thursday in his segment “If you don’t know, now you know,” discussing everything from the increasing number of these attacks and the DIY ransomware kits available on the dark web, to the limits on what the government can do to help when private companies get hit by attacks.
“I get that it’s difficult for the government to regulate the internal security of private companies, but the solution to ransomware cannot be to put the entire country into airplane mode,” concludes Noah at the end of the segment. “I mean no-one even does that on airplanes.
“Unfortunately, as of right now, there’s not another solution that seems workable.”