How to protect your PC from ransomware!

Ransomware is a particularly nasty kind of malware which encrypts your files and holds them ransom until you make a payment. In this article, we explain what ransomware is, how it works and which software can help you protect against it best.

What is ransomware and why should you protect against it?

Ransomware is a kind of malware which locks you out of your device or encrypts files on it, preventing access until a sum of money is paid. This tricky malware can be delivered via Trojan, which a user may download by accident thinking it is another file, or it can spread without any user action, as in the case of WannaCry.

WannaCry spread very quickly and was perhaps the most high profile recent example of ransomware. It affected 300,000 computers in over 150 countries by taking advantage of a vulnerability in Windows which was leaked from the NSA. Another example of ransomware is Cerber, which infects your system via Trojan horse, then encrypts your files and asks for payment. 

You can commonly catch it by downloading pirated software or movies, and then only the hackers have the ability to decrypt your files. Other examples of nasty strains of ransomware include CryptoLocker, Petya, Bad Rabbit, AES-NI and Osiris, among others.

What is the best software to protect against ransomware?

There are a lot of options for protecting your PC against ransomware attacks, but we recommend Acronis Ransomware Protection. It's a free application with a wide range of benefits, including not just active prevention, but also file backup and recovery.

By monitoring the behavior of your system in real time, it can stop attacks from known ransomware (like WannaCry, Osiris and Petya) and from new ransomware which hasn't ever been seen before, also known as zero-day attacks.

Here's how it works: If a suspicious process starts trying to encrypt your files or infect your system, Acronis will stop the activity and notify you. It will then give you the option to either block the activity permanently or let the suspicious activity continue if it was a false alarm, for example, if you were encrypting your own files on purpose.

It doesn't stop there. If malware does manage to damage or encrypt your files, they can be restored from a local cache on your computer. In addition, Acronis offers 5 GB of free cloud storage, which updates regularly, so you can keep your most critical files backed up securely in the cloud, too.

How to get Acronis Ransomware Protection for free

Here is our step-by-step guide to downloading, installing and configuring Acronis’ Ransomware Protection software. The first step is to download the installer, which is only 20 MB, from the official website. The application is compatible with PCs running Windows 7 SP1, 8, 8.1 or 10, it doesn't slow down your computer's performance, and you can use it alongside your other anti-virus or backup solutions without any problems.

• Download Acronis Ransomware Protection Free 
• Let us know your thoughts on PC security and ransomware defense in the comments!