As you have probably heard in the news recently, there have been several instances across the global of crypto-viruses affecting tens-of-thousands of machines worldwide. What’s scary about these crypto-viruses is that they execute without anti-virus software detection and they will encrypt all of your personal data (Pictures, Documents, Spreadsheets, etc.) on your hard drive. If you have any external drives connected or if you have any network shared drives connected, the virus will often encrypt the data in those locations as well. Once the data is encrypted, it is impossible to decrypt unless you pay a ransom to the person (or organization) that created the virus. Of course, paying the ransom doesn’t guarantee that they will provide you with the key to unlock your data. Chances are, the data is gone. A new variant of the crypto-viruses recently release is called ‘Petya’. What is especially concerning about this crypto-virus variant is that it also encrypts a portion of your hard drive that Windows looks at in order to boot up! So if this virus gets executed on your system, your computer won’t even boot up normally AND your data will be encrypted. As you can imagine, this has created an absolute nightmare for IT professionals, businesses and end-users worldwide. So the question becomes, how do I protect myself and my business from getting these types of viruses? Well, it’s fairly simple and the steps are outlined below: Windows Updates: Ensure that ALL workstations AND servers are up-to-date with the latest version of Windows updates. Many of these viruses take advantage of holes in Windows that Microsoft has recently patched. By having your systems up-to-date, will ensure a less-likely possibility of being infected by one of these bugs. Having an up-to-date system also ensures that no other bugs can affect you either. Cross Island Computers can ensure that all of your systems are up-to-date with our advanced management software. Back up: This should go without saying, but ensuring that you have a proper back-up in place for all workstations and servers is absolutely crucial. This isn’t only to help in the event you get one of these bugs, but also in the event of a hardware failure or some...
Read MoreLet’s face it; we store our entire digital lives on our computers. Gone are the days of using 35mm film to capture life’s moments – now we point, shoot, upload, copy and ultimately store those moments in time on our computer (can you even remember the last time you actually printed out a photo?!). Alongside our photos are thousands of hours of our favorite tunes, videos that have been collected over the years and don’t forget your college essay’s (or your children’s homework assignments). All of these files create our digital collection of personal items that if we were to lose, would create sheer pandemonium and of course, probably make you cry. Here’s a question, where do you keep your Social Security card? What about your birth certificate? If you like to keep a stash o’ cash, where do you have that? Exactly. You don’t leave it out, unprotected (if you do, well I am sorry to hear that, but maybe you want to re-think where you keep some of the most important documents one could ever posses!). Chances are, you have a safe, a safe-deposit box at a bank, or some other ‘vault’ to store these items. These items are protected from fire, theft or any other form of destruction; but what about your digital collection of personal items? You know where I am going with this. Chances are you haven’t backed up anything. There’s a device in your computer called a hard drive. This is the device that holds all of your valuable information. This device is like a ticking time bomb, just sitting there, spinning away, creating all sorts of heat and noise until one day ‘click click – click click – click click’ and NOTHING! It either refuses to power on, or it spins up but makes god-awful clicking sounds (or some other sounds) and your computer doesn’t turn on and basically, everything that was stored on it is gone, damaged, or incredibly difficult to recover. How do you avoid this conundrum? Back up your data, silly! It really isn’t that difficult, nor is it expensive! There are myriad of free programs/apps out there that will do the job and all you need is an...
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