Editorial - Whanganui hit by ransomware virus

Computing Solutions owner operator Craig Hansen repairs yet another computer compromised by a virus or spyware. File photo.

Ransomware like that which hit the UK's National Health Service and spread quickly around the globe hit Whanganui last year.

Several key computers at Keith Street school were infected, effectively destroying the files that were stored there.

And Whanganui Hospital was also impacted. Neither paid the ransoms demanded.
Many home users too have lost precious photos and important files to this modern form of extortion.

It is highly unnerving that our systems can be so vulnerable.

The virus is said to spread either by clicking emails from an unknown source and on devices with outdated software.

How is it possible for that to matter?

Humans will always be tricked into clicking the wrong thing, and can people really be expected to be computer geeks when it comes to keeping their devices secure?

It's not as easy as checking the car tyres before driving off - and how many of us even do that?

While losing family photos is distressing, it pales in comparison to our banking system going down for any extended period, or our electricity and communications systems.

We naturally assume that Government and corporate systems are more hardened to infiltrations.

But as the NHS attacks remind us, our systems are not as safe as we would like to believe. How might you feel if your private medical records were now likely being sold across the internet?

We know by the mere existence of WikiLeaks that no Government nor corporate system is fool proof, or in the case of those still running Windows XP, necessarily even adequately secure. And what goes on behind the scenes between Governments is anybody's guess - but we do know cyber espionage is rife.

While most of us can barely work out how to stop our phones from pocket calling our contacts list, we should not let our varying levels of digital literacy blind us from appreciating how vulnerable even essential systems in fact are.