Practices are still being infected with this virus! If you do not ensure that you are doing full incremental backups and you get infected, YOU COULD PERMANENTLY LOSE ALL OF YOUR CLIENT RECORDS. The support desk will always endeavour to recover your system to full functionality, but there is only so much that we can do. At best you will have significant system downtime and at worst you could lose all of your data. Please take this threat seriously and ensure that you are taking proper precautions!
You may recall in November 2015 we added a post about a virus called the “Cryptolocker”. Click HERE to see the handout we attached detailing types of backup and their pro’s and con’s.
This type of virus is known as ransomware and although it has been around for some time now it has been growing more sophisticated with each incarnation. The aim of the infection is to encrypt all your files, then make you pay an extortionate ransom to get them back.
Ask yourself these questions.
- How do you do your backup each night? Is it run manually or automatically? If automatically how do you know it’s working?
- What do you backup to? USB stick, USB Hard drive, dropbox ?
- What do you backup? Just the main database or all the Teleos configuration files?
- How do you plan to recover from an infection? Is there a computer on your network capable of being a temporary server with limited users if yours goes down?
The Teleos support contract states
The Customer shall: Keep a minimum of three separate backups of the software on an approved backup medium (tape, removal hard drive, Memory Stick etc) which will be used on a rotational daily basis. At least one of these backups should be removed from the customer’s premises or locked in a fireproof safe to allow recovery of data after fire, flood or theft of equipment. Backups must be fully verified using manufacturer supplied software utilities. It is entirely the customer’s responsibility to check that daily backups have been performed.
All Teleos servers and workstations need a fully licensed and up to date Antivirus to give you the best chance at reducing infection, however you and your staff also need to be diligent. A virus like this will only gain access to your system in 2 ways, opening web links that contain the virus or opening email attachments containing the virus, these things don’t just appear by themselves.
If you are not sure what backup you have in place please get in touch with the support desk, in this case an email would be preferred and we can look as soon as possible. Please do this through a Teleos t-mail or a standard email support@teleosvet.co.uk