Protect Yourself from Ransomware

I recently had a customer that had his PC infected by Ransomware.  For those of you not familiar with Ransomware, it’s a virus that encrypts all your files and holds them hostage until you pay the hostage taker $1000-$5000+.  It’s well known that even if you do pay the exorbitant ransom, there’s still no guarantee that you’ll receive the key to unlock all your files.  All his business and personal files were affected, including emails, which were all no longer accessible.  To make things worse, he had no backup of anything.

To avoid getting virus’ and Ransomware, you must have good virus scan software AND malware prevention software.  Don't depend on what comes with Windows because it's the minimum protection, which is only what my customer had.  In the event a virus or malware does slip through, having a sound backups is the key to minimizing loss and letting you sleep at night. 

I strongly recommend the following virus and malware software:  Kaspersky Internet Suite (most robust) and Malwarebytes Professional/Premium (industry leading software). 

For backups, I recommend Carbonite, which has unlimited storage for just $5.99/month and provides multiple versions of files you backup in case you accidently delete a file or make other changes you didn't mean to.  Transmission and data storage is encrypted for security.  Backed up data is available to your other computers, smartphone and tablets as well from free!

For more information on Ransomware, Virus’, prevention software and backup software, contact TheGoToTechGuru.