Cybersecurity Awareness Tip 25: Backup all devices continuously

Pay A Ransom or Restore Your Backup

It's (possibly) your worst nightmare. The ransomware screen of death: pay up if you want to decrypt your hard drive and all your precious pictures.

Use Your Backup Plan

Then you wake up and laugh, remembering that your pictures are automatically backed up from your phone to your private cloud moments after being taken.  And the rest of the data on your Mac desktop (or Windows or Linux) are also backed up on your personal cloud nightly.  You have a local backup of your system from a week back, so you can get the system back online within a few hours and, after a day or two, have everything restored and your malware tools updated.

SwampGeek Recommends...

Years ago, SwampGeek recommended a backup plan that included a combination of offsite ("cloud" and onsite ("personal cloud") backup using a plug computer. Pictures from your phone could be uploaded automatically and without limits to your free Google account. Then cloud provider stopped supporting personal accounts.  And the plug computer stopped working. And Google forced its suppliers (i.e. users) to pay to be the product by ending unlimited, free photo storage. And the Internet speeds increased significantly.  And the cloud backup solutions multiplied.

SwampGeek recommends (without affiliate or any other compensation):

• pCloud:
  • Synch multiple devices
  • Also good for file sharing
  • Can automatically backup photos from your smart phone
  • Offers encyrpted option for extra privacy
  • Great one-time payment, lifetime usage option, even better during November
• IDrive
  • ​​​​​​​Supports sync and complete system backup / clone to local drives, other systems on the same network, and the iDrive cloud
  • Support file versions and limited file sharing
  • Can automatically backup photos from your smart phone
  • Backup or retrieve bulk data, within a week, using physical shipment of temporary storage devices
  • Look for significant discounts the week of US Thanksgiving holiday