You must be diligent to prevent randsomeware or any other malware from get on your computer  or network.

Here are some important security tip:

1. Your first line of defence is to keep your operating system up-to-date. If all of those computers in Europe had updated their operating systems those machines would never have gotten infected. Make sure your OS stays up-to-date by turning on automatic updates in your control panel. If you have Windows 10 this is always on.
2. Make sure the rest of your software is up-to-date by running  Secunia PSI (personal software inspector). This tool is from a respected security company so it is okay. It scans all of your installed software to see if it is the latest version. The latest version should have all the necessary security patches.
3. Install any new software or updates to current software from a known good source. Try Ninite an easy to use source for much of the free software you maybe using now.
4. Links in emails and browser pop-up frequently contain malware.
5. Do not depend on an antivirus program to protect you because it wont! I use “Windows Defender” because I don’t like the warnings that pop-up when I’m not running an antivirus. Defender is  free and it’s already there on Windows 8 or10. If you’re not running Windows 8 or 10 you don’t get “Defender” so you should use “Security Essentials”. You can get it from Ninite.
6. Do not run your computer as administrator. Researchers found you are far less likely to get an infection if you do not run with all privileges because malware run with the permissions of the user.
7. Last but not least BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!

Follow these 7 tips and you may never get bit.