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You can't attend a tech conference without encountering at least one presentation covering ransomware -- and for good reason. The 2017 Malwarebytes annual "State of Malware" report found ransomware detections had increased by 90%. High-profile ransomware attacks, including a much publicized case involving the city of Atlanta earlier this year, have the front office ready to fund almost any strategy IT can come up with for preventing ransomware attacks to protect company data. Vendors love all this. Google "ransomware protection," and you will get page after page of sponsored posts from vendors offering the latest inoculants against ransomware vectors and the latest scanners to detect infections. Preventing ransomware attacks has spawned well north of a billion dollars of tech sales. Fatalism prevailing At the same time, a growing fatalism seems to have taken hold regarding ransomware, a sense that it will get you regardless of preventive measures. A former federal law enforcement officer speaking at a Silicon Valley confab a few...