Antivirus programs are never perfect and you could be infected even if you run one, but it’s an important layer of defense.

Use a good antivirus product that will attempt to stop ransomware in its tracks.

CryptoLocker has been verified to arrive through email attachments, via the Java plug-in, and installed on computers that are part of the Zeus botnet. RELATED: Basic Computer Security: How to Protect Yourself from Viruses, Hackers, and ThievesĪside from using a proper backup strategy, you can avoid ransomware in the same way you avoid other forms of malware.

This tool accesses “Shadow Copies,” which Windows uses for System Restore - they will often contain some personal files. If your files do become locked by ransomware and you don’t have the appropriate backups, you can try recovering them with ShadowExplorer. This is part of the reason why automated back-up solutions are so convenient. You wouldn’t want to lose a week’s worth of work because you only back up your files every week. The ransomware could encrypt the files on your connected backup drive or on your network share if you have full write access.įrequent backups are also important. Don’t just store your backups on an internal hard drive or network share you have write access to. For example, place them on a removable hard drive or upload them to a remote backup service like CrashPlan that would allow you to revert to previous versions of files. When backing up files, be sure to back up your personal files to a location where they can’t be written to or erased. RELATED: What's the Best Way to Back Up My Computer? If all your copies of your files are on your computer, malware that infects your computer could encrypt them all and restrict access - or even delete them entirely. You should regularly back up files to an external hard drive or a remote file storage server. This type of malware is another good example of why backups are essential.

Does avast pick up crypto locker virus