I read an article about ransomware affecting the public transportation service in Kansas, and I wanted to ask how this can happen. Wikipedia says these are “are typically carried out using a Trojan, entering a system through, for example, a malicious attachment, embedded link in a phishing email, or a vulnerability in a network service,” but how? Wouldn’t someone still have to deliberately click a malicious link to install it? Wouldn’t anyone working for such an agency be educated enough about these threats not to do so?

I wanted to ask in that community, but I was afraid this is such a basic question that I felt foolish posting it there. Does anyone know the exact process by which this typically can happen? I’ve seen how scammers can do this to individuals with low tech literacy by watching Kitboga, but what about these big agencies?

Edit: After reading some of the responses, it’s made me realize why IT often wants to heavily restrict what you can do on a work PC, which is frustrating from an end user perspective, but if people are just clicking links in emails and not following basic internet safety, then damn.

  • @Chev
    9•10 months ago

    Can totally tell you, that most people do not care. They do get training and notifications but they don’t try to learn. The only people that actually care about it are some techies and the CFO.

    • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺
      6•10 months ago

      With that it also lacks sensibilization, as to why it is such an integral issue.

      At my workplace we had it become part of a mandatory once a year presentation on all sorts of security issues. So you get a 3 hour presentation, about how to use a ladder, when not to use electrical appliances, what to do in case of fire, how to behave if the police shows up… and in there is also something about IT security.

      The thing is, that it is also important to know what to do if there is a fire, or how not to fall from your turning chair and breaking your neck, because the way to the ladder was too far.

      So what we do need, is regular testing and interaction with these issues to build routine. But more importantly we need a work environment, where people have the space and time to think before doing something, if this has any security risks worth paying attention to.