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How to Protect against Ransomware?

Posted on 6/19/15 at 3:46 pm
Posted by austintigerdad
Llano County, TX
Member since Nov 2010
1884 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 3:46 pm
There seems to be growing number of posts about PCs getting infected with ransomware like CryptoWall.

It's likely that my external USB backup drive will be toast if the PC gets infected, since the backup software maps the disk to a drive letter – allowing the ransomware to encrypt those files.

My home office has a cloud backup service, but the logs always show some errors and I'd prefer to have at least one reliable local backup.

I'm thinking of creating once-a-week backups on two or more inexpensive 128 GB flash drives that I can swap out and keep disconnected, using an open source backup program like Create Synchronicity.

Can anyone suggest a better solution?

TIA
Posted by gmrkr5
NC
Member since Jul 2009
15101 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 3:47 pm to
quote:

Can anyone suggest a better solution?



dont click on emails that you have no business receiving. if you didnt order something then clearly you should not have a package waiting for pickup

this is good too

quote:

I'm thinking of creating once-a-week backups on two or more inexpensive 128 GB flash drives that I can swap out and keep disconnected, using an open source backup program like Create Synchronicity.

This post was edited on 6/19/15 at 3:50 pm
Posted by austintigerdad
Llano County, TX
Member since Nov 2010
1884 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 3:55 pm to
quote:

dont click on emails that you have no business receiving

I'm asking how to create ransomware resistant backups.

Malware now infects legitimate websites, friends' email directories, online ads, etc., so you've got to assume your system might get infected sooner or later.
Posted by efrad
Member since Nov 2007
18702 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 4:14 pm to
quote:

I'm asking how to create ransomware resistant backups.



The only ransomware-resistant backup is one that is not connected.

Buy two external hard drives and configure the computer to backup to both of them on a regular basis. But alternate whichever one you actually have connected.

e.g. if you back up on Sundays, leave HDD A connected on Sunday 1, then HDD B connected on Sunday 2, then HDD A again on Sunday 3, etc.

Another idea is to use a cloud backup system that includes versioning, which means that the backup system stores both your current data and previous versions of your files up to a certain date, so that previous versions can be retrieved even if corrupted or malware-encrypted versions are backed up.
Posted by Tigeralum2008
Yankees Fan
Member since Apr 2012
17630 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 4:28 pm to
there are a number of ways to prevent ransomware.

Ransomware protection

Applocker

This post was edited on 6/19/15 at 4:29 pm
Posted by austintigerdad
Llano County, TX
Member since Nov 2010
1884 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 4:51 pm to
quote:

there are a number of ways to prevent ransomware.

Ransomware protection

Applocker
I didn't find anything new in that linked article.

Microsoft says that Applocker for Windows 8 is only on Enterprise editions, so unless you're running a corporate domain this doesn't seem like an option.

Therefore it sounds like the only choices are to 1) buy a cloud backup subscription, or 2) buy a couple of large external drives, remove any bundled backup software that expects the drive to stay connected, then once a week connect one of the drives and schedule a full, primitive backup with a third party utility.

Yikes.


Posted by foshizzle
Washington DC metro
Member since Mar 2008
40599 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 4:57 pm to
In addition to an onsite backup I use SOSBackup, which does online backups with versioning.

Also, be sure you do a practice recovery run before you are forced to do it for real.
Posted by TigerRob82
Baton Rouge
Member since Nov 2014
407 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 4:59 pm to
It looks like it works for All versions of 8.1 though.
Posted by austintigerdad
Llano County, TX
Member since Nov 2010
1884 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 5:05 pm to
(no message)
Posted by Jim Rockford
Member since May 2011
104367 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 6:55 pm to
I got the FBI malware a couple of times. Because I use linux, I just ended my browser session through system tools, and restarted it. Problem solved.
Posted by SG_Geaux
Beautiful St George, LA
Member since Aug 2004
80524 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 6:58 pm to
I have had that pop up in Chrome a couple of times. I just bring up Task Manager and kill Chrome
Posted by LSUtigerME
Walker, LA
Member since Oct 2012
3933 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 7:48 pm to
I've used SyncToy as a lightweight "backup" or synchro software. Can be used to mirror, add only, etc. no versioning though.

I've been considering using CrashPlan, and their backup software is free for local backups. Haven't tried it out yet though, but it looks to get good reviews.
Posted by GrammarKnotsi
Member since Feb 2013
10078 posts
Posted on 6/19/15 at 9:30 pm to
quote:

I got the FBI malware a couple of times. Because I use linux, I just ended my browser session through system tools, and restarted it. Problem solved.



You got a popup...90% of you posting have 0 clue
Posted by Jim Rockford
Member since May 2011
104367 posts
Posted on 6/20/15 at 1:05 am to
Wrong.
Posted by ILikeLSUToo
Central, LA
Member since Jan 2008
18018 posts
Posted on 6/20/15 at 2:09 am to
quote:

Wrong.


Wrong to your wrong.


So, can this Ransomware span across network drives if they aren't mapped to infected PC? Or better yet, would it be a safe, albeit pricier, backup solution to back up your files to a cheap PC-turned-NAS-box running Windows or Linux, which in turn makes a redundant backup to USB-attached storage that is not shared on the network?
This post was edited on 6/20/15 at 2:11 am
Posted by Rhio
Lake Charles
Member since Dec 2013
1423 posts
Posted on 6/20/15 at 8:30 am to
I hope that no one in this topic was stupid enough to seriously pay someone to get their files back.

Posted by efrad
Member since Nov 2007
18702 posts
Posted on 6/21/15 at 5:10 am to
quote:

I hope that no one in this topic was stupid enough to seriously pay someone to get their files back.



If the files are more valuable than the ransom, it'd be worth it...
Posted by BuckeyeFan87
Columbus
Member since Dec 2007
25249 posts
Posted on 6/21/15 at 8:43 am to
quote:

How to Protect against Ransomware?


Posted by gmrkr5
NC
Member since Jul 2009
15101 posts
Posted on 6/21/15 at 9:08 am to
quote:


I'm asking how to create ransomware resistant backups.

Malware now infects legitimate websites, friends' email directories, online ads, etc., so you've got to assume your system might get infected sooner or later.


You have no clue what your talking about.
Posted by austintigerdad
Llano County, TX
Member since Nov 2010
1884 posts
Posted on 6/21/15 at 1:21 pm to
quote:

quote:

I'm asking how to create ransomware resistant backups.

Malware now infects legitimate websites, friends' email directories, online ads, etc., so you've got to assume your system might get infected sooner or later.
quote:

You have no clue what your talking about.


ETA: Not sure if this is a troll, or just ignorant.

I've received plenty of virus infected emails from friends' accounts after their email was hacked.

I've also seen Google Chrome warning dialog boxes when visiting legitimate business websites that suddenly got infected.
This post was edited on 6/21/15 at 1:51 pm
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