Large picture collection scared of Cryptolocker

OLD · 15 Dec 2013 at 10:11

Existing setup is gigabite router, three computers and a raid 10 NAS .
The photos are so important that I propose to take the main computer off the internet and have it connected to the NAS only. How do I do this and keep the file transfer speed? Computer is running windows 7. How do I set up and wire this and what hardware is required please.

ChrisD. · 15 Dec 2013 at 12:30

Give the computer a static IP that it outside of the routers DHCP scope, and simply don't give it an default gateway.

Edit, unless I'm reading this wrong.

V-Spec · 15 Dec 2013 at 12:33

If your NAS is connected to the same network as your main computer (the one you access it from) and your main computer gets something like cryptolocker, I'm pretty sure the NAS wouldn't be immune, especially if you have things like mapped drives and stuff.

cryptolocker has been known to encrypt mapped drives and do just about anything..

If the stuff is so important that you can't risk losing it, at any cost then I'd propose a backup to physical media such as a tape drive, then keep the tapes in a small fireproof safe...

(I actually do this with my photography, because I shoot film, which costs a fortune and the scans also cost a fortune)

OLD · 15 Dec 2013 at 14:39

I notice on ebay a low priced router Belkin N+ Wireless Router 300 Mbps 4 Port Gigabit Virgin F5D8235 would this be the answer, if it was not connected to the net and say disable the wifi.

bremen1874 · 15 Dec 2013 at 14:55

If you just want your PC to be connected to the NAS, and nothing else, you just need a network cable. The only complication is that you'll need to assign static IPs because there won't be a DHCP server available.

E.g. Assign the NAS with static a IP of 192.168.1.1 (mask 255.255.255.0). Assign The PC with static a IP of 192.168.1.2 (mask 255.255.255.0). Connect them together with a network cable.

visibleman · 15 Dec 2013 at 17:11

V-Spec said:
cryptolocker has been known to encrypt mapped drives...

Yup; so your NAS isn't immune from 'cryptolocker' unfortunately if it's accessible to systems that aren't isolated/'air gapped'.
However, if the 'main' system is primary storage for the photos and you're using the NAS purely for backup then isolating the 'main' system will help.

Although i would argue that if the photos are that important then you should put in a decent offline backup solution - external drives or cloud storage, which is dirt cheap (BackBlaze, CrashPlan etc).

Rroff · 15 Dec 2013 at 17:16

My backup solution is a QNAP TS-412 with 2 drives internally RAID mirroring and a USB2 external drive plugged in the back that is setup to realtime replicate the contents of the RAID, then I have the front USB port setup to "snapshot" the current RAID contents and alternate 2 USB drives with snapshots of the current data at regular intervals. (Gives a fair amount of protection against cryptolocker type stuff). Also might be worth settings up a read only network share and using the built in NAS file manager to move new files to that.

If your data is really really important (mines mostly software development with a bit of commercial stuff in there) then you'd want to add some offsite backup to that also.

InfiniteNoise · 15 Dec 2013 at 18:59

Anything Cryptolocker can see, it encrypts.

Your best solution is to create an offline backup regularly and a backup of that backup, to be sure, in the unlikely event that your PC is infected and it starts to encrypt the offline backup drive you connect.

Cryptolocker is both beautiful and scary.

KIA · 15 Dec 2013 at 22:00

Idartalis said:
Your best solution is to create an offline backup regularly and a backup of that backup, to be sure, in the unlikely event that your PC is infected and it starts to encrypt the offline backup drive you connect.

V-Spec said:
If the stuff is so important that you can't risk losing it, at any cost then I'd propose a backup to physical media such as a tape drive, then keep the tapes in a small fireproof safe...

This.