attacks from ransomware They cause a computer to download malware that encrypts the hard drive, and to recover the original data, criminals demand a ransom in exchange for the decryption key.
In case of non-payment, all data is lost forever. And in case of payment, criminals sometimes fail to fulfill their end of the bargain and the data remains unrecoverable.
This type of data is becoming more and more frequent. The last victim to come forward is the Nordic Choice hotel chain in Finland.
The ransomware attack on the hotel chain paralyzed its systems, but Instead of paying to remove the malware, what the hotel did was turn their Windows PCs into Chrome OS devices., which solved the problem.
Manual room search during ransomware attack
This was made possible thanks to the CloudReady software that Google acquired in 2020. What this software does is allow Windows PCs that are no longer in use to become Chrome OS devices.
That’s what the hotel did, that It converted around 2000 Windows laptops to Chrome OS laptops in around 48 hours.
This solution was faster than trying to clean all computers of the virus, since the switch from Windows to Chrome OS can be done centrally, without having to travel to each hotel.