Most of us in the technology and IT world can say that we are Star Wars fans. As a matter of fact, it is pretty safe for me to say that anyone in technology has probably been a Star Wars fan for many year and still is. Which is why before we get caught up in the new movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this may be a good time to mention a part of our real world dark side, CryptoLocker and the Crypto-Clones!(See what I did there… hehehe).
Hopefully you haven’t been hit by CryptoLocker. The infamous malware (or ransomeware) that can infiltrate your network, encrypt your hard drive and basically hold it for ransom. Or force you to re-format and start from scratch. An action that would even make a droid sigh in frustration!
CryptoLocker and the Crypto-Clones are similar and with some planning and perseverance, even if you get hit by these nasties of the internet Dark Side, with proper planning and tools you can fight back against its onslaught. Unfortunately even if you CAN use the Force… it will not help you if you get hit with CryptoLocker and its clones, but the following will:
A) Maintain multiple backups of all important data (daily, weekly, monthly)
B) Make sure to TEST your backup media and that you can recover data from it
C) Remove Admin rights from all (or at least most)
D) Don’t allow users to run elevated privileges unless necessary
E) Install Antivirus and confirm that it is up to date
F) Educate and warn your users on how phishing and CryptoLocker infiltrate
G) Have a Disaster Recovery Plan
For small and medium businesses it helps if you have a true IT partner (MSP- Managed Service Provider) that can perform all of these items and let you focus on running your business! That’s one of the items where MSP's shine through! Although you can prepare and prevent this infiltration, it can still happen. However recovery will be able to get done in a few hours and not a few weeks (or never!).
If you can go through the above steps, or find a Jedi partner… ahem… I mean a Managed Service Provider (MSP) like LSeven Solutions, then the FORCE will truly be with you!
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