Ransomware is everything bad about humanity distilled into malware—maliciousness, greed, and casual incompetence. It encrypts your files and demands payment for a key that might not even work. But with the right backup strategy, your files can survive an infection.
I sit in the camp that says, "Nuts to it all -- go straight to you backups".
A synopsis of the article:
If you back up to an internal or external hard drive that’s constantly connected to your PC, or the cloud, consider those files already dead.
Disconnect your backup from the network. A solid weapon against ransomware is to use a backup media you can air gap, meaning it’s completely disconnected from your computer and the internet. For example, if you back up to an external hard drive, only connect it during the regularly scheduled back up, and then disconnect it again immediately afterward.
Use a backup tool that saves multiple timestamped versions of your files. Then, when you restore your computer, you should have the option of going back far enough that your backup predates the infection.
Cloud storage is not the same as cloud backup and, consequently, anything that syncs or mirrors your data is toast. If you want to reclaim any files, you can’t rely on the free versions of Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive, for example.
Keep at least TWO backups, each on different location (some other system) and/or media.
