It seemed apt to write my first post here on a topic which is becoming increasingly important for businesses: the risk of ransomware. Just as a perpetrator may hold a physical person or thing to ransom, the same applies to a company's data assets and information. Documents, images and other files are encrypted by ransomware using a key that is only held by the attacker. A ransom demand is then made for release of the key so that the victim's files can be decrypted. As with many cyber attacks against businesses or individuals, the mechanism used to mount a ransomware attack is usually through infection of the victim's computer systems with some type of malicious software.