I would be interested in hearing from others how they protect their data from those who wish to screw us over. All logical information is welcomed. Although I'm older than dirt I still want to learn.
Nothing is absolute. But here are some steps you can take:
1) rotating backups. At least 3 weekly/monthly backups totally offline. 5tb hard drives work pretty well, along with either a fireproof safe or (ideally) offsite storage.
2) monthly full with daily incremental backups to a NAS that's separated and/dr disconnected from your computer when not being used for a backup. Disconnect necessary to ensure that the encrypting malware won't encrypt that drive, too - or use a protocol that doesn't make it appear as a drive on the system. You can copy the monthly backup file onto a hard drive(s) and store it offline to also accomplish step one if your period is monthly.
3) choose a cloud service that will sync or backup files from your machine and not delete the old files. Services like Intermedia and SpiderOak work that way, as do a lot of others. To permanently delete files, you need to log into the cloud server and do so. Some services provide end-to-end encryption and web access, others don't. Some form of encryption is important to avoid prying eyes, data mining, and hacking.
4) email in the cloud, choose a service that provides for backups. You can archive old email to a local file if necessary. Encryption again is recommended and may be required for some professions.
5) even though they're not fully effective, anti-malware and system updates are a must.
6) a good external firewall installed in the router is important. Supplement that with software firewalls on each computer.
7) avoid opening email or files that don't seem right. Use web site scanning/evaluation software - not just for phishing but to avoid surf-by downloads of malware.
That's a start of things that will help. Plan for recovery, and stake steps to try to make it unnecessary to recover.
