Written by: Kelly Buckman Most of us are familiar with this common scenario: An individual or a company employee is working in an application on their pc when a menacing message appears advising them that their computer has been locked and that they will have to pay a fee to regain access. It’s called ‘ransomware’, a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until an amount of money or ‘ransom’ is paid. Ransomware attacks are carried out through a technique known as crypto viral extortion, in which the victim’s files are encrypted, making them inaccessible until a ransom is paid to decrypt them. Since 2012, the prevalence of ransomware scams has grown globally. One example of ransomware, crypto locker was especially successful, extorting an estimated $3 million before it was removed by authorities. Another, Crypto Wall, was estimated by the FBI to have accrued over $18 million by June of 2015 (per Wikipedia). Pretty scary stuff for both the individual co