The moment a user browses the Internet, they expose themselves to dangers. One of the most popular is ransomware. Today we will answer the question of whether ransomware can affect backups.
Can ransomware Affect Backups? We Analyze It
Ransomware is one of the most dangerous and lucrative attacks out there. In this type of attack, users are asked for a financial ransom in exchange for recovering their data, making it very profitable for the attacker. What is truly worrying; in the case of investing in ransomware backup to protect your data, ransomware can also affect the backup in the cloud.
At the time this attack happens, the harmful software is responsible for encrypting all the data on the computer. And the truth is that there are possibilities that the data shared on the local network will also be encrypted and end up affecting more computers.
In the event that there is a backup copy in the cloud with the files, without them being infected, what can be done is to delete and restore the affected files with copies, to immediately return to normal without having to have to pay anything.
The dangerous thing is what we mentioned at the beginning. The reality is that ransomware can affect cloud backup, but it mainly depends on how the cloud storage is configured. And not all backups are the same. You can have a backup copy in the cloud that is safe and another that is not. And sometimes it has to do with timing.
Why with synchronization? If the files that we thought were safe in the cloud backup are infected and encrypted due to ransomware and a synchronization is performed, what can happen is that the safe files in the cloud backup are infected and encrypted by ransomware. What has happened is that original files that were safe and not infected have been replaced with ones that are, which is why it can be a problem.
The same when it comes to file sharing. It is something that is totally the order of the day. Even if you are careful, you can be infected by automatic synchronization and downloading to the hard drive from different computers.
Without forgetting the backup copies via USB. If the backup is done on this type of device, the information may be lost, while with our copies in the cloud it is always safe and the copies cannot be deleted even if you suffer from ransomware.
Remember to never pay! Always make backups
When an attacker carries out ransomware, what he hopes is to collect a significant financial ransom, given that the user wants to recover their files and is desperate. However, taking into account that these types of attacks are totally the order of the day, what you have to do is never pay and, before it happens, do ransomware backup periodically.
Depending on the frequency at which you change or update the files, this frequency should be greater or lesser. For example, it can be daily. And always using a secure method that does not allow you to lose the backup made or it to become infected, as happens with Cloud Copy solutions.
How To Prevent Ransomware From Affecting Backups?
If you are afraid that the synchronization will infect other devices, the first thing you have to do is log out of the infected device remotely. If you don’t know if it is infected, do the same but on all devices, to prevent it from spreading.
It is also important that you make sure your computer is 100% virus-free before doing anything else. With the equipment disinfected, you can now proceed to download the files to the cloud and recover them. This is how you can recover from ransomware and not be affected.
We hope that all this information and advice has been very useful to you, given that it is an emerging problem and that it is totally the order of the day. Without a doubt, it has come to stay and it is key to know how to stand up to it.
Remember that with Proven Data services backups you will not have to worry about ransomware, because it will not be able to affect the files. They will be safe and always at your disposal to restore them on any computer! Do you have any doubt left?
