January 5, 2018 | eX3webdev Unfortunately, we have witnessed the devastation of Ransomware attacks and we want to help. As always, computer users need to be extremely careful when opening email messages, opening sketchy websites and downloading freeware. The internet is unforgiving and Ransomware is the scariest and most debilitating threat out there. Fortunately, Microsoft and security software vendors are developing solutions to further protect your data. First of all, we recommend using Windows 10 as it is a more secure operating system than previous versions of Windows. In October 2017, Microsoft released the Fall Creators Update for Windows 10 which is a major update that happens to include Windows Defender Controlled Folder Access. Controlled Folder Access prevents malicious apps from changing the contents of selected protected folders. This feature essentially lets users control what apps can access certain, protected folders and it allows common trusted applications to modify the content of these folders. When we tested Controlled Folder Access, we had to make exceptions for some applications like Quickbooks which was simple to do. We also tested Trend Micro Security and it has a similar protected folder scenario as Microsoft’s Controlled Folder Access. During setup, Trend Micro recommends setting up its protected folders which we did and we did not need to make exceptions for Quickbooks or other common applications. With the “protected folder” functionality enabled in Windows Defender and Trend Micro, cyber criminals will not be able to encrypt your files protecting you from ransomware attacks. Regardless if you have Controlled Folder Access or Protected Folders enabled, we highly recommend cloud-based backups to further protect your data from these attacks. With cloud-based backup, the ransomware encryption process cannot access your protected and remote cloud backups. Together, enabling protected folders and cloud backups will protect your critical data. Don’t hesitate!