Malware and adware have been around almost as long as the Internet existed. First viruses would attack a computer clogging the hard drive, or deleting the files – do things that would reduce or completely stop computer’s functionality. Then cyber criminal realised that it might be a great way to make money, so adware took the flagship and everyone was flooded with advertisements, pop-ups and other nasty things. The next wave of conspicuous malware aimed at particular user individually, tricking people into buying things, paying for services and so on. Of course, there is an awful lot of malware that you cannot see. Those programmes sit quietly and intercept all the sensitive data, as passwords, payment details, and personal information.

The good news, that most of those viruses are easily removable from your computer. Additionally, your banks, social media, and email providers have also improved a lot in handling those attacks or misuse of intercepted information. And for some time we were not particularly scared when a client would come in into our London Computer and Mac Repair Service with an infected computer. We can remove all the harmful stuff in 5 hours or less. So when horrified people would point at “Interpol has blocked your computer until you pay a fine” or “All your data will be encrypted, if you don’t pay…” message on their screens, we would smile and say “There is nothing to worry about”.

Yet the new wave of malware makes us worry a lot. There are types of malware that actually do encrypt your data. And, according to Kaspersky Lab, this harmful activity has increased in five times during the past year. Kaspersky Lab offers a variety of tools to protect your computer, but even they admit that this may not be enough. That is why their new defence includes a backup tool, and in the case of infection, Kaspersky restores the system to the previous state before infection. They admit that regular backup is indispensable when dealing with this type of threat.

Contact us if you need an advice on backup. Or visit our Computer repair London service at 59 Westbourne Grove, London, W2 4UA.