Advice Request The danger of desktop syncing apps

[shmu26]

In the "old days", I used to think of apps that sync my personal files to the cloud as the best way to protect and preserve them.
But with the rise of ransomware, it could be just the opposite, because if your files get encrypted, you might get your cloud backup messed up as well, thanks to the sync.
So I turned off all that constant real-time syncing, and only run a sync every once in a while, as necessary.
What do you think about this issue?

 

[SHvFl]

They can restore your files to a previous version. I know dropbox can do them all if you make a ticket and don't want to do them one by one.
Onedrive you can restore for sure but i don't know if they can restore the whole account at once.

 

[Wave]

So I turned off all that constant real-time syncing, and only run a sync every once in a while, as necessary.
What do you think about this issue?

Yes this is a valid issue and something that can definitely happen, although not all ransomware may target cloud sync (or if they do it most likely isn't an intentional search for it) since some may just attack areas such as Documents; that being said, you should always have an offline backup which is safely secure and accessible when necessary.

@SHvFl mentioned the copies (previous versions) which can be beneficial but I wouldn't rely on this entirely, too risky IMO.

If you have proper offline backups which are safely secured then in the case of ransomware you can just revert back without worrying about your backups being encrypted/messed up by the ransomware also.

 

[SHvFl]

Yes this is a valid issue and something that can definitely happen, although not all ransomware may target cloud sync (or if they do it most likely isn't an intentional search for it) since some may just attack areas such as Documents; that being said, you should always have an offline backup which is safely secure and accessible when necessary.

@SHvFl mentioned the copies (previous versions) which can be beneficial but I wouldn't rely on this entirely, too risky IMO.

If you have proper offline backups which are safely secured then in the case of ransomware you can just revert back without worrying about your backups being encrypted/messed up by the ransomware also.

I tried it actually. Encrypted everything and told them to restore and they did. Obviously i keep offline backups though but they are also a business and if they can't provide proper business they will be out of business.
I consider online backups as my last step if all my offline backup fail for some reason.

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

I have a few images of my precious daughters floating around
the internet on MEGA. but other than that all my backups are clones and
Digital storage.
I can buy HDD's pretty cheap and favor Seagate's. I have one for Images
and Documents, one for installers, one for Linux, and 2 for Windows so I
can clone my drives monthly. I think in the future I am going to be very glad I don't
cloud my stuff. I tried it, and just don't like my crap floating around out there.

 

[Wave]

I tried it actually. Encrypted everything and told them to restore and they did. Obviously i keep offline backups though but they are also a business and if they can't provide proper business they will be out of business.
I consider online backups as my last step if all my offline backup fail for some reason.

No I mean it may not always work out that way (e.g. may not be 100% reliable), not that what you said isn't right/cannot be done

 

[SHvFl]

No I mean it may not always work out that way (e.g. may not be 100% reliable), not that what you said isn't right/cannot be done

Oh i see. Obviously accidents happen and they can also lose the backups. That's why we have backups at multiple locations.

 

[shmu26]

They can restore your files to a previous version. I know dropbox can do them all if you make a ticket and don't want to do them one by one.
Onedrive you can restore for sure but i don't know if they can restore the whole account at once.

Onedrive keeps previous versions, but only of Office files, not your pics and your music.
Dropbox is definitely the winner here.

 

[Der.Reisende]

I use two external hard drives to back up music, photography and data. Uploading it would take forever. I only keep data on OneDrive I want to be able to access from everywhere. Of course, because of the perfectly described ransomware issue by the OT (I had an issue like that once, probably 1,5 years ago!) I have all those data backed up on named external hard drives.
The good news for me back in time when I had the ransomware attack (due to testing HMP.A and ZAM against TeslaCrypt), I could restore the data (nothing much of use for criminals), as ShadowDefender saved the locally stored data (same as the ones in the cloud), with which I could save the day
Obviously, the AV I used back then would have caught the file by signatures (and probably dynamically, too), but that's the reason I decided to turn it off for the test.
This was the last time I ever used something else than a local account to run malware.

 

[LASER_oneXM]

I use two external hard drives to back up music, photography and data. Uploading it would take forever. I only keep data on OneDrive I want to be able to access from everywhere.

i have a similar startegy: i making backups/synchronizing data on (three) external 2,5 inch harddrives. Then i immediately
unplug the drives from my machines. I'm also frequently uploading some data (not all) from my external backup drives to
cloud services in order to acces this files from everywhere. So if a ransomware attack should "destroy" my local files and files in my
clouds i still have the complete backup of all my files on external drives...