A new survey of consumers in North America has shown that they tend to be better educated about security . ESET , a Slovakian anti - virus software company , conducted a report revealing that despite widespread reporting of the attacks , 30 % of those surveyed admitted to not knowing what ransomware is or does . Younger people ( 18 - 24 ) had less knowledge and understanding of this technology than the over 65s . A significant number of respondents admitted to not backing up their files ; 31 % overall , which rose to 35 % among young people . Encouragingly, about 85% of respondents said that they wouldn’t pay the ransom fee if faced with an infection. More positively , a large percentage ( 85 % ) of those surveyed said that they would not pay a ransom if their computer became infected .
A new survey of consumers in North America has shown that they tend to be better educated about security . ESET , a Slovakian anti - virus software company , conducted a report revealing that despite widespread reporting of the attacks , 30 % of those surveyed admitted to not knowing what ransomware is or does . Younger people ( 18 - 24 ) had less knowledge and understanding of this technology than the over 65s . A significant number of respondents admitted to not backing up their files ; 31 % overall , which rose to 35 % among young people . More positively , a large percentage ( 85 % ) of those surveyed said that they would not pay a ransom if their computer became infected .