The two kinds of computer users
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There are 2 kinds of computer users in the world: Those who regularly backup data and systems images, and those who wish to gawd they did! :)
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
Backups are a definite must ... and certainly can help with ransomware. But they sure as elephant don't even come close to being a silver bullet. So I might be tempted to say you get 2 sub-kinds of the first kind: - Those who know that a good backup routine is only a brick in the wall. - Those who think having an "awesome" backup routine is all they need. Personally I start off by stating: I am the weak link. I need to make sure I don't do stupid things like clicking on just any old thing, or opening mails from doggy sources. Next I take the line that a backup is blind ... if you don't catch things like ransomware soon enough, your backup is simply duplicating the ransomware spreading it further. So do tests on your data before and after backups, i.e. what anti-viruses "should" be doing but rarely actually "do". And finally understand that no lock is pick-proof, no medicine works for all illnesses - same way all firewalls / AVs / etc. are just attempts to keep bad things out. And fixes and patches are just there to try and remove those bad things once they HAVE TAKEN HOLD. At which time your latest backup is most probably also infected and would help very little when you try to restore it.
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Kidding, right? My back-up routine falls under the military category "Mutual Support", with files flying in every direction, from every machine to every machine, in perfectly-timed relays. It's better planned than the bus services in most cities. I could lose two-thirds of the machines on my network without losing a file, and would only lose any important files if all the devices failed at the same time as the Internet was switched off forever. But I'm still not so stupid as to open e-mails from people I don't know, and will only open attachments to e-mails if the person has told me in advance (through a medium other than e-mail) that he's sending me an e-mail with an attachment.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
*IF* the ransomware can encrypt foreign drives ... you could lose everything at once. The biggest danger of this situation is believing we are safe. Better to be extra paranoid. I have burned backups of personal files to DVD-R as a failsafe. Better safe than sorry ...
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*IF* the ransomware can encrypt foreign drives ... you could lose everything at once. The biggest danger of this situation is believing we are safe. Better to be extra paranoid. I have burned backups of personal files to DVD-R as a failsafe. Better safe than sorry ...
Better make sure it's on an m-disc. Normal dvd-r's have a very finite life before the ink layer seperates from the protective layer (I've been caught before thinking my backup dvds were good). In a high humidity environment of warmer than normal temps, the avg life could be about 2 years.
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Better make sure it's on an m-disc. Normal dvd-r's have a very finite life before the ink layer seperates from the protective layer (I've been caught before thinking my backup dvds were good). In a high humidity environment of warmer than normal temps, the avg life could be about 2 years.
Thanks for the tip. I know DVD/CD media has a finite lifespan. I'm doing regular daily, weekly, and monthly backups onto secondary HD and external HD. I've been doing DVD about every 6 months (as a fail safe) but now shifting to every 3 months. Storage is room temperature (60 F to 76 F) at low humidity. Life span in this situation should not be a problem. Given my care in dealing with the internet I *think* I'm a low risk for infection. But not no-risk, hence my paranoid backups. ;) The real problem is not any of us, it's everyone else who can touch our personal and professional networks. I keep in mind that every time someone makes something idiot proof, someone else creates a "better" idiot.
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*IF* the ransomware can encrypt foreign drives ... you could lose everything at once. The biggest danger of this situation is believing we are safe. Better to be extra paranoid. I have burned backups of personal files to DVD-R as a failsafe. Better safe than sorry ...
Well, uh, all I have to do is not give the program that's doing the nasty permission to cross the network. There's paranoid, and then there's cautious and knowing what you're doing. Do a bit of research, before going crazy with a DVD burner -- Hell, a better solution would be to back-up once a day, then air-gap the backup discs.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I've been wondering about those upvotes myself? I've had nothing to do with it. It's not the first time I see phantom upvotes. :)
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
Here, have another upvote :laugh:
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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... Aaaand even that gets an upvote.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
You can have an upvote too - don't want you to feel left out :laugh:
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Here, have another upvote :laugh:
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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You can have an upvote too - don't want you to feel left out :laugh:
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
How DARE you upvote the kind of garbage that I spout!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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How DARE you upvote the kind of garbage that I spout!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens