To provide a basic definition of ransomware, it is important to pay attention to what the malicious program wants to achieve and what the cyber criminals distributing it have. The malicious program encrypts user data so that it cannot access its files. Often, encrypted file types include important business information or personal data that can damage your reputation or threaten compliance.

It is pretty important to keep your computer safe, but some ransomware could prevent you from accessing your computer. Then how to prevent ransomware? In this post, you will learn tips to prevent it as well as the methods to respond to ransomware attacks.

How to Prevent Ransomware?

How to prevent ransomware? There are 7 useful tips that you can take to prevent it, and now let’s take a closer look at the tips.

Tip 1: Keep Your Antivirus Software Up to Date

How to prevent ransomware? If you have installed third-party antivirus software on your computer, then the first and easiest method to do it is to keep your antivirus software up to date, which could prevent the malware from accessing your computer.

And there are two powerful tools that you can use to protect your computer - Malwarebytes and Avast. But which one is suitable for you? You should read this post - Malwarebytes VS Avast: Comparison Focuses on 5 Aspects.

Tip 2: Keep Your Data Safe

How to avoid ransomware? It is recommended to keep your data safe. If you receive a call or email from an untrusted source asking for your data, please do not give it out.

Cybercriminals who plan ransomware attacks may try to obtain your data before the attack. They can use this information in phishing emails to specifically target you.

The purpose is to trick you into opening infected attachments or links. So don’t let criminals get your data to make their traps more convincing. If you are contacted by a company asking for your data, ignore the request and then contact the company independently to confirm that it is true.

Tip 3: Never Click on Unverified Links

How to prevent ransomware attacks? You should never click unverified links in spam or unfamiliar websites. When you click a malicious link, the ransomware will be downloaded, and then your computer will be infected.

The ransomware will encrypt your data or lock your system once it is installed on your computer. And it will ask for a ransom so that you can recover your data once it saves something like a “hostage”.

On the surface, paying these ransoms is the simplest solution, but this is precisely what the perpetrator wants you to do, and paying these ransoms cannot make sure that you can access to your device or data.

Tip 4: Never Open Untrusted Email Attachments

How to prevent ransomware? That is to never open untrusted email attachments. Ransomware can enter your computer through email attachments.

You should never open email attachments from senders you don’t trust. Check who the email is from and make sure that the email address is correct. Before opening the attachment, be sure to evaluate whether the attachment is genuine. If you are unsure, then contact the person who sent you the email to double-check.

And you should never open attachments that require you to enable macros to view them. If the attachment is infected, opening the attachment will run a malicious macro and then the malware will control your computer.

Tip 5: Never Download Apps from Unknown Sources

How to protect against ransomware? The answer is never downloading apps from unknown sources. By doing this, you can reduce the risk of downloading ransomware.

When you need to download some apps, go to verified and trusted sources such as Microsoft Store. If you want to download something from websites, you should look in the search bar because most reputable websites use “https” instead of “http”. And sometimes, a shield or lock symbol may also be displayed in the address bar to prove that the site is secure.

Tip 6: Make Your Operating System and Apps Up to Date

How to prevent malware? Keeping your operating system and apps up to date is a good choice. Updates to your system and applications often include security patches, and these patches are essential to prevent ransomware and other malware from penetrating your device.

You can follow the instructions below to check if your operating system is up to date.

Step 1: Press the Win + I keys at the same time to open Settings and then choose Update & Security.

Step 2: Go to the Windows Update tab and then click Check for updates on the right panel.

Step 3: If your system is not up to date, Windows will start to download updates automatically.

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And if the operating system you are using is not supported by Microsoft, such as Windows Vista, then you could easily be attacked by ransomware. Therefore, you’d better upgrade your system to the latest version – Windows 10.

Tip 7: Back up All Important Files on Your Computer

What is the best ransomware protection? Obviously, it is to back up all important files on your computer. Even if your device is attacked by ransomware, the data that you backed up before will remain safe. And you can then use the backup files to restore the data when your data is attacked by malware.

However, you should back up your data to an external hard drive and make sure that you don’t connect it to your computer when you are not using it. This is because if you insert a hard drive when you become a victim of a ransomware attack, the data will also be encrypted.

So how to back up data quickly for free? It is highly recommended to use MiniTool ShadowMaker, which is a piece of powerful and professional backup software for Windows. MiniTool ShadowMaker supports back up files, folders, disks, partitions and even the operating system to different locations, including Administrator, Libraries, Computer, and Shared.

You can easily restore your backup files using the Restore feature. In addition to the Backup feature, the Syncfeature can also help you to protect your data and you can use it to sync files and folders to different locations. The Clone Disk can help you to make a bootable external hard drive.

To learn how to back up your important files on your computer, check out post.

How to Respond to Ransomware Attacks?

After you have known how to prevent ransomware, then you may wonder how to get rid of ransomware? This part gives you some instructions.

1. Never Pay the Ransom

You should never pay the ransom required by the cybercriminals. Paying a ransom does not necessarily guarantee that you can regain control of your computer or retrieve your data. The payment of ransom also fuels this crime. The more people who pay the ransom, the more popular the ransomware attack.

2. Isolate the Infected System

Then you need to isolate the infected system from the rest of the network. You need to disconnect from any networks and the Internet at first, then turn off the system.

In this way, you can isolate your computer from other computers on the network and reduce the chance of the ransomware infection spreading to other computers.

3. Identify the Type of Ransomware

Next, find out which malware infected the computer. The Incident Response team, IT organization or an outside consultant will be able to figure out the type of ransomware and start planning the best way to get rid of the infection.

4. Remove the Ransomware

If your computer is infected with encryption ransomware, then you can use a ransomware decryptor to retrieve your encrypted data. And if you have backed up your data on the external hard drive, then you can restore them to your computer, which can retrieve your data.

Final Words

This post is mainly talking about how to prevent ransomware, so if you want to avoid ransomware attacks, then you can try the tips mentioned above. And obviously, the best free ransomware protection is to back up all important files using MiniTool ShadowMaker.

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