How I Got Hacked... And Why You MUST Have a Backup! - Comments Page 3

I'm really confused about backups. I have an HP Portable USB 3.0 drive which is always plugged in to my tower, and Norton Ghost writes to it on an ongoing basis. Would you consider my computer backed up? What prevents the virus from getting onto the external drive via Ghost?

Bob - I noted in this article that MBAM was stopped from running after a few minutes. I've had success with removing malware from friends' computers by using MBAM's "Chameleon" feature. This allows MBAM to run by disguising itself so the program keeping it from running doesn't recognize it. The worst example I was able to clean up had a little more than 250 items of malware clogging up the works.

I can't believe that you are still using XP, Could theses be signs that the hard drive need replacing. Windows Defender won't run on XP. Sounds like the Google redirect virus.
http://askbobrankin.com/defeat_the_google_redirect_virus.html

I would use a VM or my iPad to investigate these type of issues.

Why didn't you use a scrap machine. Or virtual PC

I have used Macrium solution for some years. As a Windows 10 'Insider' a reliable 'backup / image' is a necessity, not an option. In fact,the same applies to any user. Recently a build of insider crashed on my Toshiba laptop, No restore point worked, Windows image failed & unable to go back to an earlier build No Windows recovery options were successful. Answer Macrium image restore. Has not failed me so far.Always have a Macrium backup /image on my other two 'Live' working systems. In addition I run "File History" on all 3 systems regularly.

HOW do you KNOW it was a Russian hacker site ? It could be a site in US, pretending to be Russian ! Or Ukraine , or anywhere on Earth !

I have PC-Matic and it is wonderful for blocking virus' and has many other features.

I think if you had PC-Matic anit-virus software, this virus would have been blocked and not an executable.

Correct me if you feel this is untrue!

Cheers,
Jeffrey

RG Schmidt, your computer is not backed up. As another poster wrote you do not have a backup if your computer content is not on 3 different media (computer, 2 backups) of which 1 should be off-site.
Ideally there should also be a history of backup, i.e. a backup should not overwrite the already existing backup on the media.

YOUTUBE HAS BECOME MALWARE & REFUSES MILLIONS OF PEOPLE FROM COMMENTING!

A good backup regimen is very important for a LOT more than malware recovery. I have heard it said (and I agree) that the greatest danger to the computer is the user. Even the most experienced/cautious user does things at the keyboard out of habit (or thoughtlessly). We can easily skip a step when performing routine procedures, or inadvertently delete a file we need.

Aa an example of carelessness, a week or so ago, I was wiping clean about a half dozen USB drives using GParted from within a live session of System Rescue. After about two or three drives, I skipped the step where I switch from viewing my primary drive's partitions to viewing the USB drive's partitions and selected all of them for deletion. I executed the operation before I realized my mistake. Thanks to my backup regimen, it took me about an hour or less to fully recover. Without an up-to-date full backup image that I could use, it may have taken me a full day or perhaps two to fully recover, and even then, who knows whether I could have recovered everything I had lost.

I have been using (and building) PCs for most of my adult life. Prior to retiring, I had a small side business building/repairing PC's. My first PC ran with MS-DOS 3.1 (just to date me a bit), so I consider myself to be a veteran PC operator with a better than average understanding of computer use/management. If I can make such a disastrous mistake performing a routine procedure that I have performed more times than I can count over the years, anyone can.

I use the free edition of Macrium Reflect. I have it configured to generate a monthly full image and daily differential images of all the partitions on all drives attached to my desktop PC, except the one partition to which I have it write the image files. I keep two monthly full images and thirty differential images. This allows me to restore my system to the state it was in at the start of any of the past thirty days. It also allows me to recover any file(s) that have existed on my system within the past thirty days, or with the state they were in on any of the past thirty days. I also have OneDrive sync the files on my desktop PC, so I have a real-time backup stored offsite.

If you have your own personal PC, and you don't already have a backup regimen in place and working for you, I strongly suggest you do so. If you don't, you are gambling/betting that your PC will never contract malware, or that you will never make some disastrous mistake that could potentially destroy all that you have on your PC.

My2Cents,

Ernie