Can ransomware impact my backups on an external drive?

In this excerpt from
Answercast #89, I look at the possibility that ransomware can infect other
drives connected to your computer and hold you at ransom.

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Ransomware infecting external drives

So, there’s a lot of concern here – I get that. But, it’s not something I worry about on a daily basis for a couple of different reasons.

So let me answer the question that you asked.

Can ransomware infect external drives?

Can ransomware do this? In other words, can ransomware actually encrypt not only your main machine but your external hard drive at the same time so that you cannot access the information until you pay the ransom for the decryption key.

Can it? Absolutely, yes.

Does it? I’ve actually never heard of ransomware working that way. Ransomware that I’ve encountered has always encrypted only the primary hard drive of the system and sometimes not even all of that. Sometimes they simply encrypt data files or program files or just enough to allow the system to keep running but actually hide your valuable data from you.

So, in short, I don’t really think it’s that big of an issue.

Ransomware is a virus

Now, you called out “ransomware” specifically but I think that this isn’t a problem that is unique to ransomware in any way, shape or form. Ransomware is just malware. It’s just another form of virus. It’s just another form of malware.

What that implies is… can malware do bad things to any of the other drives that are attached to your system?

And the answer there is, yes.

In fact, various forms of malware do exactly that. They infect not only your machine but they infect any additionally attached drives in order to propagate.

We hear this all the time from people who have USB drives that pick up malware on a machine that they are connected to – simply because they were connected at the time a malware infection happened. Then that external drive is taken to another machine and, through whatever appropriate steps, the malware is then infecting the second machine because the external drive that carried the infection was connected to it.

Protect yourself from malware

So, how do you protect yourself from all of this?

Well, you protect yourself from all malware (be it ransomware, or malware, or anything) the way you protect yourself in general:

• Run anti-malware software;

• Keep it up to date;

• Get behind a firewall;

• Behave well on the internet – don’t download things you shouldn’t download; don’t open files you shouldn’t open, don’t open attachments you shouldn’t open.

It’s what we now consider to be standard common sense.

Be safe online

If you follow the basics of common sense for keeping your machine safe on the internet then you’re keeping it safe not just from ransomware but from all malware that you might encounter along the way.

So, that’s my advice.

Yes, if you want to disconnect your hard drive – absolutely you can. And… disconnect your machine from the internet while you’re not using it; while you’ve got the hard drive connected – just to make sure that there’s no way it can leap frog.

But in general I think that step is unnecessary – as long as you’re practicing good internet connectivity hygiene. As long as you’re doing the all of the right things to keep your machine safe in general.

(Transcript lightly edited for readability.)