A Heads Up

[dik]

This is not a structural issue. It's a warning to others. I don't need any 'off topic' comments.

A couple of days back, I was hit by a ransomware virus that encrypted all my files, including the three backup drives that were attached to the computer. Fortunately I can recover nearly all my work (for the last 30 years) because I replaced my HDD with a new 16TB drive and had a full backup. This was just by accident that the loss wasn't much worse.

Future backups will include disconnecting backup drives from the computer when not in use as well as using some form of cloud storage.

I'm still working through it and still have to recreate some of my work. It's the dumbest, I've felt in years. Just a heads up... I'm pretty careful, but got 'hit'.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[dik]

Thanks IRS... air gapping is what I'm doing... by unplugging... learned my lesson... I'll look into the fourth item... In a way, a lot of my more recent files were gleaned from my eMails, which were not affected. The two weeks that were gone, were mostly recovered by eMail. My backup is last file... it does not keep sequential documents.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[IFRs]

Human909 - can you suggest one or two other websites with good sugestions?

 

[XR250]

I've cut down on my browsing a lot (I'm still a bit of an info junkie, but a lot more careful).

PSA, stay away from porn sites!

"Unfortunately, the prevalence of malware on porn websites is very high. According to security researcher Conrad Longmore, there's a 53% ..."

 

[dik]

Thanks... but, don't have much time for them.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[jerseyshore]

Had this happen in an office I worked for. Related tip, make sure your backup systems (whatever they are) actually work!

We had physical drives that were unplugged every night as backups (10 total so 2 weeks). Guess what, someone downloaded a virus, went all thru all of network drives and created havoc for days before anyone noticed. Some of our backups didn't work. We lost a lot of the previous week's work in the office. It was brutal. Check those backup systems!

Not long after that we went to upgrade our server and during the switchover we lost ALL of our emails prior to that day. Years and years and years. It was such an old POS server that it couldn't handle the transfer. Double related-tip: check all of your systems on the regular!

 

[dik]

My system is manual... I use a program called FreeFileSync and do a complete backup every day or two using a *.bat file I wrote. That's the only time these backup drives are connected to the machine. There are 3 backups like this. I don't use the cloud. Daily work is saved to a USB stick which is connected. A complete copy of the backup is stored on a second computer, not connected to the internet. I have lots of redundancy.

The only thing I need to do is to install a copy of Macrium Reflect to do a complete 'clone'. I keep talking about it, but have been too busy.

I'm comfortable with this, and think this is pretty reliable. I've also become more concerned about stuff I've downloaded (not porno) from 'technical sites'; I'd gotten into some 'bad' habits. I've also installed an anti-virus program called 'Bitdefender'; my son, who operates a website, told me it was one of the better programs. I think I'm OK now, but it was really close.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik