Ransomwares and network shares
I back up a fail-safe copy to my networked hard drive, but I have learned it may not be immune to a ransomware attack. What can I do to protect it?
[ ALICE THOMAS ]
Nick Peers replies: The best way to prevent ransomware from infecting any network shares
is to make sure that your network credentials aren’t stored in Windows. This is a two-step process — first, make sure your Windows user account doesn’t have access to the network share in question (in other words, create a dedicated username and password for accessing that share — easier to do when logging on to a NAS drive). And second, when you log on to a network share, resist the temptation to tick the box marked ‘Remember my credentials’ — you’ll have to manually enter a username and password each time you log on, but it reduces the share’s exposure to potential infection. If you currently have saved network credentials in Windows, you can remove them: type “credentials” into the Search box and then click ‘Manage Windows credentials’ to access the built-in Credential Manager tool. You should see entries for each saved network password under ‘Windows Credentials’ — next, click the ‘v’ button followed by ‘Remove > Yes’. This should clear it. If you’re backing up to a network share, check to see if your backup tool can save those network credentials independently of Windows — for example, in Macrium Reflect, select ‘Other Tasks > Edit Defaults > Network’ tab. Click ‘Add’ to manually add a network path, username and password and then click OK twice. You can now back up without exposing your network share to ransomware.