Back up your computer today and put the hackers out of business.

Thousands of computers around the world continue to be attacked by WannaCry ransomware. Like most ransomware, this malicious program holds important data and precious photos hostage until a ransom is paid to the cyber criminals.  We all know that there are things that we can do to protect our computers, such as, apply security patches as soon as they are released, do not run as administrator any longer than necessary, and do not open unsolicited email attachments.  However, it is almost imposable to eliminate the risk of being infected.

According to a report by security company Proofpoint, “today’s advanced attacks focus more on exploiting human flaws than system flaws.”  The need to protect your data is now more important than ever. However, if you are hit with ransomware or a virus, you will want to a good backup. Backups can protect your data against more than just ransomware: fire theft, flood or accidental deletion.

Are you backing up your files regularly and keeping a recent backup off-site?

The best practice for backup is the three-two-one rule. To back up your data, you should have:

• At least three (3) copies,
• In two (2) different formats,
• with one (1) of those copies off-site.

Find more information on the “3-2-1” backup rule at the American Society of Media Photographers, Inc.  

Carbonite is an excellent affordable business cloud storage solution. Carbonite is an automated backup solution that allows you to save unlimited office files, photos, and music. I also like some of the other free online backup services like Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive. When picking a cloud storage solution, you will want to make sure that the services provides versioning because ransomware can infect and encrypt drives in multiple locations. Also if you are backing up infected files that have been encrypted, those could get backed up replacing your good files. That’s why versioning is so important. Carbonite has a great solution and a white paper on versioning.

It is highly recommended that you do both a full onsite and offsite backup of your computer. An External Hard Drive external hard drive can be connected to your computer to easily backup your entire system image. The benefit of a system image is that it can instantly be used to restore your computer if your hard drive fails or your computer stops working. You will want to have a backup that is air gapped because a virus can also affect a backup. This will be a copy of your data that is not connected to your system to eliminate any chance of infection.

Back up every computer you own today and help put the hackers out of business.

For more information about how to prevent a ransomware attack. Visit www.NoMoreRansom.org