You’re currently protected on OneDrive, but for Outlook.com we will have to wait.
Ransomware is a kind of virus that can infect your files encrypting them and the developer of the ransom asks you an amount of money in exchange of a key to decrypt your files back. They can even be in your OneDrive files and this is something Microsoft is trying to do: ”protect all the files you have on your drive”.
Microsoft announced that you can ”roll back” your files stored in OneDrive to have a version of your files up to a month old. This is with the intention to help you return to a point before your files were infected. Microsoft said that they’ll use an automated threat detection system to find out when the malware began infecting your files and will alert you via your phone app so you can take action.
They said that will protect files sent through web outlook too. The only thing is that we will need a subscription of a Microsoft Office365.
“With the growing presence and sophistication of online threats like viruses, ransomware, and phishing scams, it’s increasingly important to have the right protection and tools to help protect your devices, personal information, and files from being compromised,” Kirk Koenigsbauer, the corporate vice president for Office, wrote in a blog post.
What does it means for you? Even with smart surfing and other good internet practices, anti malware against all kinds of its variations, it still will happen. When you’re infected with ransomware and your files are stored in the cloud, if they’re in OneDrive, your files are protected. Why? Because OneDrive will have a history of your changed files and you’re going to restore them at a point before they got infected.