With tons of new viruses rapidly appearing and spreading by the hour, the risk of getting hit by malware remains. And because of this, Synology continues to address this issue by creating powerfully efficient security measures like their Security Advisor.
Not only that, they offer routinary updates to safeguard everyone from possible threats like new encryption-based ransomware. These often target your personal files, as well as network-based gadgets.
With Synology’s DSM 7.0, you can avoid such problems since it helps protect and maintain your gadgets or systems. All of these can be done simultaneously while your projects and other activities grow.
The company always ensures to go through great lengths to guarantee the safety and security of your data. The DSM 7.0’s first line of defense is authentication. With that, you can be sure that it offers top-notch protection and security.
This article will let you know everything about Synology DSM 7.0 and how it can protect you against ransomware. We’ll explain how it can rescue your system and NAS from any malicious attacks around.
But before we get into that, let’s talk about ransomware and what exactly it is.
What is Ransomware?
It’s a kind of malware coming from cryptovirology that presses to publish your personal data. Or, it blocks your access to these data unless you pay a ransom for it. This is done by locking your system’s screen or locking your files.
Technically, ransomware has become a huge threat to a lot of home users and small officers. That’s because they usually have defence systems that are less sophisticated.
The more modern types of ransomware families are categorised as crypto-ransomware. And as we mentioned earlier, these encode specific file types on infected systems, then force you to pay the ransom. They acquire such payments through online payment methods to get the necessary decryption key.
Remember, you may encounter ransomware through different means like accidentally downloading it to your system. Often, it happens when you visit a compromised or malicious website. Not only that, it can come in the form of a payload that’s downloaded or dropped by other malware.
It doesn’t end there, because ransomware can also be sent as attachments from spammed emails, or downloaded via malvertisements. They can even be sent by exploit kits to any system that’s vulnerable.
Once it has entered the system, the ransomware can lock your computer screen or encrypt predetermined files. The latter would be in the case of crypto-ransomware.
A notification or full-screen image appears when it locks the computer screen, preventing you from utilising the system. Interestingly, the notification comes with detailed instructions as to how you should pay the ransom.
In the other scenario where an image appears, you won’t be able to access critical or valuable files. These include spreadsheets, documents, and the like.
What Does Synology Offer in DSM 7.0 to Make Your Data Safer?
DSM 7.0, which is the latest version from Synology, is integrated with a lot of features. These will be more visible to end users but do note that not everything will be.
The latest Secure Signin is among the front and centre features that optimise your NAS security. This can be done by utilising the new mobile application for authentication.
Secure Signin
Before anything else, what is Secure Signin? It’s a protective element that will activate once, then let you log in to your NAS system.
What’s special about it is you won’t have to utilise your password to access it. Instead, it makes use of authentication technologies that are often present in smartphones.
Other than this, the app will utilise your biometric security features and add an additional protective layer.
Here, you can enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for added security. You can go for this option if you don’t want to use Secure Signin.
When you have this enabled, you can confirm the DSM login request straight from your smartphone. This is without having to bother unlocking it then tapping on Secure Signin’s notification.
FIDO 2 Support for Better Data Protection
To make excellent security effective and easy, the DSM 7.0 offers a number of fresh authentication processes. And one of them is the FIDO 2 Support.
It is dependent on hardware security keys such as USB Key, Touch ID (macOS), and Windows Hello (PC). These are less vulnerable compared to passwords and can usually be stolen by phishing, malware, social engineering, and more.
How to Protect Against a Ransomware Attack
Attacks by ransomware aren’t only a threat to you. It’s also a threat to companies like small or medium-sized enterprises.
To protect yourself and avoid malware infection, here are some factors that you need to consider:
Update Your Operating System
One way to ensure protection is by updating your operating system. Remember, outdated systems tend to be more vulnerable to ransomware attacks. This is the reason why regular software and OS updates are essential to optimise your computer’s security.
Install a Trusted Security Suite
You’ll need efficient antivirus software or a trusted security suite to detect and fight malicious threats. Doing so will provide you with additional protection for your system.
Stay Away from Any Suspicious Files
Always keep watch and stay on guard before opening any email attachments sent to you. This also goes for clicking random files from unknown sources.
In addition, it’s best to keep an eye out for suspicious files that have concealed file extensions like .pdf.exe.
Disable Remote Access
Keep in mind that malware commonly targets systems that utilise RDP or Remote Desktop Protocols. To avoid this, disable your RDP when you don’t necessarily need to use remote access.
Backup Computer Data to Your NAS
You need to establish a multi-version backup for a point in time recovery. This is to avoid having to pay a huge ransom to unlock your data.
The Synology Drive Client is ideal for backing up your data that’s stored on your PC to the NAS server. You can keep up to 32 historical categories of one file that’s kept protected from folder encryption.
Repelling Hacking Attempts
Auto-blocking is the perfect way to battle brute attacks. It prevents “guessing” after a specific number of attempts by disabling the account. Plus, you can opt to block an IP address as well.
Backing Up Data for Protection
Hardware or software failures, ransomware attacks, data corruption, and accidental deletion can cause you to lose a lot of data. And that’s when backup and recovery solutions become convenient. This is because these are designed to keep your data protected.
However, advanced malware like crypto-ransomware and locky can now target backup data. And of course, these malware will become more advanced over time.
That’s why you need backup and recovery solutions that will thoroughly protect your data. These should safeguard your backup environment from ransomware and provide quick data recovery from different destinations.
Only a well-built backup strategy allows data recovery, and that’s when Synology NAS comes in. With the newest DSM 7.0, Synology NAS offers complete solutions and innovations for data protection and business continuity.
Synology’s core backup apps offer protection for more devices, online services, and DSM apps. These also provide new methods of securing your backup tasks.
How Backing up Data Protects You
Encryption-based ransomware continues to advance, so eventually, anti-malware programs may not detect these. Once your data is infected, you’ll lose your access to these, and retrieving them successfully won’t be guaranteed.
That’s why it’s highly recommended to perform routine backups. These will restore your infected files and reduce the damage. Taking advantage of Synology’s multi-version is even better since this backup solution restores previous versions of the infected files.
When creating a multi-version backup for recovery, you can avoid paying a huge ransom to unlock your data. Synology NAS is an excellent solution for backing up your computer’s data to the NAS servers. It allows retaining up to 21 older versions of a single file.
Backup NAS Data to Different Destinations
Creating local backups only may not be enough since more destructive ransomware may attack shared folders on your NAS. That’s because malware may access file services on your PC.
It’s ideal for increasing your data’s layer of protection to prevent this. And of course, the best way to do this is by having uninfected backup versions in an offsite location. In case you become a victim of ransomware, you can still access your backups in different locations.
Active Backup for Business
Linux protection
Synology’s Active Backup for Business Agent fully backs up Red Hat, Ubuntu, and other Linux machines. It provides flexible recovery options that allow restoring individual files or run images as a virtual machine.
AES-256 encryption
The new AES-256 encryption keeps your sensitive files’ backup data on your Synology NAS safe. With this added security, you can protect your data against physical theft and digital breaches.
Instant Restore Migration
You can now instantly migrate machines that are instantly restored and running in the Virtual Machine Manager. A single click brings them back to their original hypervisors.
Hyper Backup
Hyper Backup is a feature that offers complete multi-version backup destinations. These include local and network shared folders, external hard drives, expansion units, public cloud services, and rsync servers.
It also provides a high level of protection for local backup. It allows data isolation from internet threats by setting your PC’s access privilege to specific shared folders on Synology NAS. This way, it prevents external forces from accessing critical backup data in your NAS shared folder.
Snapshots
Synology Snapshots add a layer of protection to your data by replicating snapshots. It uses modern btrfs file system to create copies of shared folders and LUNs, then replicates these to other Synology NAS. In case you lose your data, Snapshots instantly restores these.
Configuring Snapshots can be easily done for any shared folder. When activated, Snapshots automatically replicates the shared folder as often as every five minutes.
You can retain up to 1,024 “snapshots” or versions of the folder. But of course, you’ll need more storage if you want to store more snapshots. It’s also possible to change the number of created and stored snapshots to free up storage space anytime.
With Snapshots, you can easily go back to a file’s previous state in case of accidental deletion or ransomware attack.
Take note that Snapshots are always read-only. So, your data’s old versions aren’t susceptible to changes, and that includes during a ransomware attack.
C2 Password – Cloud Password Manager Service
The C2 Password service from Synology allows you to create, keep, and autofill your passwords for a more convenient experience online. With this, you can relax since only you and trusted people can access all the private data under C2 Password.
And since there’s an end-to-end AES 256 encryption, every data will be safeguarded before it leaves your gadget. To note, decryption will only be accomplished at its destination.
Here are the essential features of the C2 Password feature:
Secure File Sharing
With C2 Password, the file you sent will require authentication from the receiver. It adds text or image watermarks or allows the receiver to download the file only once.
Zero-knowledge Design
The key used for data encryption and decryption is stored on your devices. It’s never shared anywhere, including Synology C2’s servers. With that, you can be sure that your files are securely protected for you and those who should receive them.
Assisted Login
C2 Password automatically saves new passwords and have these appear for selection at each login screen. This feature eliminates the hassle of remembering and noting down different passwords.
Secure and Organise Items
Aside from security, you can keep sensitive data like store addresses, banking information, and passport details organised. These are arranged by category, tags, and favourites.
Cross-device Syncing
Your credentials can be accessible anytime and anywhere via mobile apps, browser extensions, or C2 Password’s website.
Complex Password Generator
C2 Password generates a complex combination of alphanumeric characters for you.
Protect Yourself from Ransomware with Synology DSM 2.0 – Summary
The DSM 7.0 is an impressive upgrade from the previous version of the Synology NAS operating system. With its range of great features, you can keep your data safe and protected from ransomware. Aside from protecting them, you can also create backup files that can be stored in different destinations.
Overall, DSM 7.0 is a comprehensive OS to keep your data and backup files securely protected. As we mentioned, ransomware continues to advance, so installing this new version of DSM is something you should consider.
Synology is running a backup solution webinar in October, check out the event here.
