How to Defend Against Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware is bad  i.e. your files are encrypted – what should be done?  At this point it is too late – the computer and or files are encrypted and the only way to recover them is to decrypt or restore from backup. (THIS IS WHY A BACKUP IS SO IMPORTANT).

 

There are some possible ways to decrypt a few select ransomware infections. _If_ the criminal hacker wrote a bad program that allows an ingenious  programmer to develop a decrypt program. These  are very rare and you can count your lucky stars if that is the case for you (search decrypt ransomware – and your mileage may vary).

The best way to recover from a ransomware attack is to have a restore data and operating system method. This will take time, but at least you can come back from this attack.

Her is also an image I have previously put out – the abbreviated history of Ransomware – Notice in 2014 the game changed when criminals made hundreds of million$ of dollars.

Let’s say you do _not_ have a backup, and thus cannot have a restore ready. Now what?  Now you can reinstall from scratch – reinstall your operating system – like Windows10 (or a server OS if it is a server). then you have to reinstall all the applications (Office, accounting, adobe, and more).

What about your data? I.e. maybe a resume, or the actual IRS tax data from the last 5 years?  Hmmm, yes it is gone. since you cannot decrypt, it is history.

So can you keep operating your business with no data? Maybe – do you have any paper copies? did you keep some data on the cloud? with a friend? In your email stream?  So maybe you can recover a few files here and there.

But one can see that in 6 months some businesses have called it quits instead of doing all this work.

Contact Us to help you review whether you have set up proper defenses and ultimately if you have proper backups so you can survive a catastrophic event!!

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