By DAVE JOHNSON – Unlike other types of malware, you can’t just clean up ransomware and go on with your day. A run-of-the-mill virus won’t destroy all your data and backups. That’s why ransomware is a hazard you need to prepare for in advance.

“If you weren’t running ransomware protection,” said Adam Kujawa, director of Malwarebytes Labs. “If you haven’t secured your backups in advance, then you really are out of luck.”

Sure, a ransomware attack can be bad, but not all hazards carry the same level of risk. For example, a killer asteroid strike is a known hazard. Should we spend trillions of dollars building a defense against a threat that only occurs once every 100 million years? Not necessarily, because the risk of actual impact is pretty low.  So, when it comes to ransomware, you have to consider what your level of risk is for permanent data loss.

Part of your risk assessment is considering how prepared you are for an attack. There are several things you can do to make your data relatively safe. Because ransomware can and will encrypt any files it finds on your PC or a connected network, choose a backup solution that doesn’t make your files easily accessible. Read On: