The threat of a computer virus that holds your entire information hostage hit home for hundreds of thousands of people around the globe this week, and computer experts say this should be a wakeup call for those who think this sort of attack is only aimed at big business.
"Just like waking up every morning and brushing your teeth is an easy way not to get cavities, running those updates on your software is good, basic hygiene to protect your computer," Brett Piatt with the San Antonio data security company Jungle Disk, tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI.
The WannaCry software started in Europe over the weekend but quickly spread. White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said at Monday's White House briefing that more than 300,000 computers were hit by the cyber-attack. Instead of seeing their desktop, users are assaulted by a screen that demands a $300 payment in bitcoins to restore their files.
Piatt says this is also a stark reminder to back up everything you feel is important.
"Even if you get his once with ransomware for $500 or $1000, you could have avoided all the headache of that for less than $10 a month," he explains.
So far, the U.S. has not been hit as hard as Europe by the attack, but that could change as the week goes on. The fear is that there might be government-employed system administrators who did not install those security patches, and leave the country vulnerable to a larger attack.
The country of China has been hard hit, according to state media, which is reporting that tens of thousands of computers were compromised, including those of PetroChina, which is one of the country's largest oil companies.