In today’s digital world, data is no longer owned only by tech companies or IT departments. All companies have data that are crucial to their business. And contrary to the common belief among many offline businesses, data is not only for purposes of record-keeping. In fact, they are the core of providing good products and services of a company.

All companies have their assets, don’t they? But do you realize that your data is one of your assets too?

These days, more and more companies are starting to study their company data to improve their products and services, which in turn leads to higher company sales and an increase in customer’s lifetime value.

“In 2016, Microsoft Corp. acquired the online professional network LinkedIn Corp. for $26.2 billion.”  sloanreview.mit.edu

How much do your company data mean to you? Is data backup needed for your company?

WHY you should backup your personal/company data…

Especially if you have spent so long on creating and accumulating your artwork/data, losing them can be a huge loss, especially if your data consist of highly confidential information that has been kept for a long time.

These data can be music clips, movies files, films, data files, projects, or even photos, especially if you’re in the creative/design industry.

Keeping all of your data in only one place is dangerous, insecure and risky. Computer loss, theft, natural disaster, and accidental deletion (just to name a few) are some of the possibilities where you can lose your important data.

What is a Computer Backup?

Making a computer backup means keeping an extra copy of the data you currently have elsewhere. In this case, we are referring to making additional copies of the original files that you have on your laptop, desktop, or even servers.

[IMPORTANT] It’s important that you do not keep different backup copies in the same device.

Imagine if all backup copies are kept in your laptop – when it crashes/is infected by a virus, you will lose all your copies since they are all similarly affected.

There are a few types of backups which can work perfectly for you.

1: External Thumb Drive/ External Hard Drive

Yes, this is the most common way most people save their data. A thumb drive is easy to use and the size of a thumb drive makes it easy to carry around.

However, the downside is its relatively small storage capacity and the fact that it can get misplaced easily. External Hard Drive, on the other hand, offers larger storage space and better speed during data transfer.

Its downside is that it can be quite fragile when accidentally dropped on the floor. In addition, technical problems are also a potential threat.

2: Bootable Drive Backup (Clone Backup)

Bootable Backup is also called a “clone” backup. Works like a “spare tyre” to a car, it is able to replace your current primary storage (aka Hard Drive) and allows you to continue working.

A clone backup is a complete copy of your computer’s primary hard drive (sometimes also called “boot drive”).

For example, if your primary drive dies, you can connect to the clone, reboot your computer, and have immediate access to not only all of your files but also all of the software you’re using.

And this include the settings and configuration you have made previously.

[Important] A Clone backup will only be useful if it has been updated regularly.

Otherwise important files or updates might be missing. However, backing up every file on your computer takes a while, and it’s best not to use your computer while the cloning process is working.

You may need a nice algorithms software to handle this, as it takes high processing power while handling your current processing task.

3: Cloud Backup

Having multiple copies with Clone Backup is the best practice to secure your data. However, your data must be able to be constantly synchronized with your backup to keep your data safe from for theft, fire, and also other natural/accident disaster.

However, here is a much better solution – cloud backups, which is the easiest way to create and maintain your data integrity with minimal synchronizing problems.

To get started, you simply just need to create an account, download a software agent, run it once to verify your account information, and set your preferences before allowing it to fully function as you wish.

After the initial setup, you can enjoy peace of mind as the software will automatically keep your computer backed up at all times as long as you are connected to the Internet.

As it has been tested by 500,000 business users, cloud backup services are proved to be optimized for processing as it won’t take a big amount of processing power and memory to maintain your backup.

A Complete Guide To Backup Your Personal Computer – Exabytes 2nd Life Cloud Backup

How backup can help you to keep the “Bad Guy” away?

Recently, there are many vulnerability threats or malwares that would harm your computer or servers. A Trojan through a loaded hyperlink can be accidentally opened by a victim through an email, advert on a web page or a Dropbox link, or even a SQL query that would later break your running server application.

Once it has been activated, the program spreads through the computer/servers and locks all the files with encryption codes that demand credit from you to decrypt your data files. One example is WannaCry Ransomware.

Find out more about Ransomeware HERE
A must-read update for ransomeware: The Era of Ransomware has arrived

Exabytes does provide Cloud Backup Solutions

We offer backup for Servers and VMware!

You come to the office, turn on your computer and see this: “We have all your files and will destroy them unless you pay”. What do you do?

Ransomware (acronis.com)

is getting more and more notorious. These days almost everyone is aware of it. While the increased awareness level is a good thing, research show most people learn it through these 3 ways: heard of a major outbreak in the news, were hit themselves or personally know someone who was hit.

May 12th and June 28th, 2017 – history will remember the unprecedented ransomware outbreaks that stalled critical infrastructures and disrupted production processes worldwide. But was it for money or was it just to damage the companies and innocent people?

“Am I a target?” Yes, you are.

If you think you are out of danger just because you are not a businessman or billionaire, then you might be one of the victims of Ransomware anytime.

Ransomware not only affect you by asking you to pay but also to steal your personal data. Your occupation, wealth, citizenship, employment status – they don’t care.

As long as you own a computer with personal files stored on it, you’re vulnerable.

WannaCry Ransomware hunts via email, social media and forged website, searching out for users who don’t install the latest updates, and sell your personal info on the black market – ransomware is turning into a deeply criminal underground industry, with its key players extremely hard to track down.

There’s no manual anymore, no top-3 things to look out for.

You have to be paying attention to the links you open and to the addresses you get emails from, you have to install the latest OS updates and patches, you must never open an attachment from an unchecked source, and for the love of sanity, you must do backup.

No, not all of them want your money

True, not all cyber criminals are after your money – some of them just want to cause trouble for your business, which is believed to be the main motive for the most recent Petya ransomware attack.

But if you think you’re out of danger just because you’re not a millionaire or because you haven’t done anything to infuriate anyone…

Remember that according to the latest global stats, an individual is now attacked every 10 seconds, while a business is attacked every 40 seconds. So how long do you think it will take before it reaches you? And are you sure your files are safe when it does?

“Is my information sold?”

Ransomware is turning into a deeply criminal underground industry, users who don’t install the latest updates in their windows system will be the targeted through email, social media and forged websites. Ransomware is nothing new.

Cybersecurity miscreants have been taking advantage of online users for years by requiring payment to “unlock” a victim’s computer. Your personal information might be sold to the back market if you do not pay the ransom.

Reference: An Article on How Much Money Did The WannaCry Authors Make?  thesslstore.com

How do you defend yourself?

“Not clicking on any suspicious emails and links – will that keep me safe?” No.

Because then you’d still have no mechanism to restore your data in case you do lose it. The main trick here is in protecting your data against ransomware in all its forms, by utilizing the technology that allows not only ransomware detection, but also automated restoration of any ransomware-encrypted data after the attack.

Most anti-ransomware solutions can only detect ransomware. Several of them stop it, though only the very few have the capacity to fully restore your encrypted files from backup (when others do it, the capacity is limited to the available cache size).

But the Acronis backup solutions with built-in Acronis Active Protection™ are designed to do just that — backup and restore data without any limitation.

Backup is always the best security strategies to prevent virus!

According to IT security services company LGMS, the first case in Malaysia involved a director of one of its clients who came across the dreaded ransomware on his personal laptop on Saturday morning.

LGMS founder C.F. Fong said the data in the laptop had to be erased as the person did not intend to pay the US$300 (RM1,300). The same ransomware appeared in the machine of an automotive shop on Sunday morning.

“The company didn’t have any backup and might pay (the ransom),” said Fong

If you need to learn more about how to avoid running into ransomware and backup your data and information while you’re online, give our professional consultants a call. We’ll try our best to keep your computer and information safe.

Full Article: WannaCry strikes two Malaysian companies. thestar.com

Does Exabytes provide any backup solution?

Yes, Exabytes Provides the Very Effective 2nd Life Cloud Backup Solution.

Exabytes 2nd Life Cloud Backup is an advanced ransomware protection technology, a key part of Acronis True Image and Acronis Backup 12.5 (currently available as a Windows-only feature, Mac version already under development).

It extends the functionality of backup by actively defending business data and protecting backup copies that ransomware tries to destroy.

It constantly looks for patterns in how data files are being changed on a computer. One set of behaviors may be typical and expected. Another set of behaviors may signal a suspect process taking hostile action against files.

Acronis Active Protection stops the malicious behavior and instantly restores any ransomware-encrypted files, helping businesses to avoid restoring backups and enjoy significantly reduced Recovery Point and Recovery Time Objectives (RPO and RTOs).

Acronis Active Protection is capable of detecting new threats based on already identified patterns as well as learned ones. Results must be adjusted to reduce false positive detection of things that really aren’t ransomware.

Acronis Active Protection maintains a whitelist—programs that are allowed and expected to perform certain actions—to prevent authorized activities from being falsely tagged as unauthorized.

We do provide a few options for our 2nd Life Cloud Backup:

1. Cloud Backup For Server 
2. Cloud Backup For Virtual Machine
3. Cloud Backup For Workstation (Window PC)

What we have learn from WannaCry and Petya Attacks of 2017?

We learned that traditional data security solutions are incapable of protecting devices against zero-day cyber attacks. Cybercriminals are constantly finding new ways to infect computers, and WannaCry and Petya are clear examples of what is about to come. Backup is the only reliable way to restore affected data, but you need to ensure that backup files are also protected from such attacks.

Use up-to-date software

The WannaCry attack could’ve been prevented had the users installed the latest Microsoft update which fixed the particular vulnerability that those hackers went after. Petya was a far more devious creation, attacking the patched computers as well. Still, always pay extra attention to OS updates.

Regular backup is a MUST

While the updates protect you from a particular rising threat, a regularly performed backup is your defense against anything trifling with your data. Be sure to follow the 3-2-1 rule: have at least 3 copies of your data, 2 of which are local, but on different devices and at least 1 copy offsite.