Hackers discover way to abuse Office 365 Autosave feature.

An autosave feature present in OneDrive and SharePoint Online was exploited by hackers, to allow them to encrypt users’ files, and in turn hold them for ransom. Rather than being malicious software this time, hackers were gaining access to user accounts with either phishing techniques or data leaks to obtain their login information. Once they were in, they would reduce the allowed version limit of files to 1 and then encrypt the file multiple times, once this was done and the original file is lost, only the encrypted version remained leaving users unable to access it.

You may think that by using OneDrive or SharePoint online that your files would be in safe hands but having no safety net leaves you vulnerable to anyone willing enough to try and gain access to your data. As mentioned above the ways in which they are doing it now is becoming more and more obscure, if they want in they will find a way. Having a third-party remote backup that exists on a separate machine to your own, is one of the only ways to keep your data and files safe from attack. Backup Systems provides you with peace of mind, knowing that you can have a secure place to backup your files in the event your system becomes compromised.

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Photo by Daniel Lawrence and Brett Sayles