You’ve undoubtedly heard all the horror stories about ransomware and its detrimental consequences on businesses. What would happen if I told you that you could protect yourself from ransomware for free with Windows 11?
Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts all of the data once installed on your computer system. Once your data is encrypted, you won’t be able to access anything. Your files/folders and applications will all be encrypted and unavailable. The only way you can get your data back is by getting the encryption key from the Cybercriminal by paying a hefty ransom. But, of course, nobody wants to do that.
There are many ways that you can reduce the risk of getting ransomware. As we said in one of our previous blogs, Cyber Security is like an Onion. All of the different layers of security help to protect you.
So, what can you do?
First, using extreme caution when opening attachments within an email, please ensure all your applications and computers are constantly updated.
An excellent backup will help you recover your data without dealing with the ransom payment and Cybercriminal.
Another method You could use is a feature in Windows 10 or 11 called Controlled Folder Access, and it is totally free!
This works by protecting specific folders against Ransomware so only trusted applicants can access the data within the folders. You decide which folders you want to protect against ransomware. If you were to become a victim of a ransomware attack, hypothetically, it should not be able to affect these files and folders.
However, take this advice with a pinch of salt. Turning controlled folder access on can prevent some applications from working. So how do we turn it on?
When you’ve opened your windows computer, the first step is to get into the security centre. This is done by Settings>Windows Security>Open Windows Security.
Windows security has a lot of protection modules, we want the ‘virus & Threat Protection’
At the base of this page, you will find that there is a ‘Ransomeware Protection’ section where you can go into the Ransomeware Protection Manager. There is then the option to switch on or off Controlled Folder Access. More option will then appear.
Looking at the protected files, we can see all of the visible folders are protected against ransomware. We can then add folders to this by clicking ‘+ Add Protected Folder’ and selecting it.
You can also unblock applications and remove them from Controlled Folder Access and add it to the ‘allowed’ list.
That is how to turn your Ransomware protection on with Windows 10 or 11. We hope this blog has been useful to you.
