'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a laptop was whirring, even those with a mouse;
The screens were all flashing with an eerie red glow
All Files Encrypted, All your secrets we know!
All the presents were nestled all snug in the sleigh
But poor Santa had no clue with whom they should stay.
After moving his list to a computer based tracker
It's all now encrypted, and in the hands of some hacker
He thought back to the moment he clicked that bad link
Things flashing on screen with barely a blink
It took several more hours for things to get bad
reading bitcoin demands from some nefarious lad.
Should he fail to pay, the threat was quite clear
the list would be auctioned on the first of the year!
He knew all identities would then be exposed
The naughty ones, most at risk he supposed.
And then, with a twinkling he jumped up from the table
Burst out of his office and across to the stable
He had just remembered that one of the deer
Had made some vague mention of backups last year.
It took just a few moments to query the herd
He was led to the closet with nary a word
There in a box, packed careful and tight
An offline hard drive gleamed in the light.
To make matters better, as Santa soon learned
His app was encrypted, the list was not burned!
The lad had been lying about exposing the lot
he had only jumble - and now he was caught!
Some hours later, after careful restore
Santa back at his list, with one final chore.
To locate the name of this nefarious lad
shifting it over to naughty with a click on his pad.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew despite the earlier bristle.
One could hear him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND KEEP YOUR BACKUPS DONE RIGHT!