I noticed Sage published knowledgebase instructions on how to recover from the Cryptowall malware – here’s the link for anyone who is impacted:
Here’s the Wikipedia article which discusses this malware ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker ).
As I posted earlier I had an end user down for 8 days (they are running 50+ companies in Sage 100) due to this malware.
Do not ignore this issue. This malware comes in via email. One user clicks and opens the attachment and the infection spreads to any drives they have access to from their desktop.
If you are not making complete backups of your server — you should begin today.
It’s not a terrible idea to have a redundant system in place. Some of my users have used the following procure which seems to work:
1. Regular backup – typically to tape or other media though cloud backup is becoming more popular.
Tip: Cryptowall / Cryptolocker will encrypt attached storage. It’s not generally safe to keep a USB drive attached permanently as a backup source.
2. Quick & dirty via removable USB drive – Don’t leave this attached but connect it and copy your \MAS90 and related folders. Then disconnect the USB. These drives are so cheap that you should pick up several and rotate them.
Tip: Staples had a 2 TB USB drive for $ 99. Granted these are not enterprise grade drives that will last years and years. However something is better than nothing.
3. Online backup using either the business version of Carbonite or Mozy.
4. Third party services which place an appliance at your office and also have the ability to quickly create an RDP type connection should your on-site server become infected.
http://disaster-recovery-services.net/cloud-data-backup-solutions/
The cost on some of these solutions seems expensive until you consider that if you lose your data and have to re-create an AR aging that you’ll potentially lose at least that much in missed billing – and that’s not even considering the time lost due to your employees sitting idle.
We’ve reached the end of the casual “I thought you were backing up” and entered a time when you must be much more proactive about ensuring that you have a good recent backup.
