As you can imagine from my websites name I take security and privacy extremely seriously unlike a lot of companies who say this but do not. It is called do as you preach. Drive encryption, hardware encrypted USBs, file encryption, UTM firewall, web filtering, long passwords, encrypted DNS, application whitelisting, little cloud used and so on. My security would likely beat the strength of most central government departments.
On Wednesday I was happily using my speedy, well looked after and well maintained SSD desktop. Without notice the computer bluescreened (BSoD) while using an internet browser. It turned itself off and after turning it on it said insert boot media which means no HDD/SSD is present or no operating system is loaded. Resetting the CMOS, removing the CMOS battery or swapping the SATA and power cable did not help. It was not seen by the motherboard nor did inserting it into another computer make it visible.
The SSD has died and gone to heaven in my view since two computers whatever I did could not see it as a drive. Luckily for me I did a full backup the day before and could use my tablet after synchronising a few files. Just two files were not backed up recently which took ten minutes to re-write. Not bad and all this took 15 minutes to restore. Completely back to normal and awaiting a new SSD drive so my desktop can be used again.
If this happened to you what would you do? Many home users and small businesses barely do backups. Once I went to a book keeper who was struck by low end ransomware and she lost weeks of client files due to the infection.
Do not keep the backups on the same device, room or network. Keep it offsite or carry it around with you. Encrypt it if you carry it around so if you lose it people cannot access it.
If there is only one thing you do….. backup!!!