We’ve all been there, you grab your morning coffee or tea, you’re doing your routine business when you walk by a workstation and you’re seeing programs you didn’t install, malware or ransomware, or even worse, the system is not even booting into Windows. It’s a mess any way you splice it.
Sadly it’s an all too common occurrence, and unfortunately it’s a problem many organizations face, The startling realization that we’re not protected leaves us wondering what you can do to further protect your systems from these unwanted changes. The unintentional upside to any issues like this help us prioritize endpoint maintenance, and that’s what we can all agree is needed in the current computing environment.
While we like to think we’re protected, this isn’t always the case. This year the US Department of Homeland Security confirmed that approximately 250,000 of its users affected by a ‘privacy incident’. They found out that for almost 12 years, their users were affected by a severe data loss. This included names, social security numbers, and other details of nearly a quarter of a million users.
The real question that many find themselves asking is, what can we do to prevent this? The unspoken truth is that instant restore and recovery tools are a critical component of any security configuration.
RESTORE OFTEN, AND EFFECTIVELY
The trick that many users of instant restore solutions will know is that restoring the machine will clear the machine of any unwanted changes. This includes files, data, viruses, malware, ransomware, even bad configuration files or updates.
Restoring on reboot is most commonly used method. Many tools offer this, meaning that on every reboot the machine will be wiped of these changes and restored to its pristine state. Users of our freeware, Reboot Restore Rx, will know that it can effectively do this while ensuring costs are kept low.
Users will not always reboot the machine. Some will walk away and leave the machine still on and idle, some will log off but not reboot. This can cause the machine to not be restoring as frequently as it can or should. Users of our Reboot Restore Rx Pro software will know that it also has the advanced capabilities to restore not only on reboot; but on log off, on a schedule, manually, or after a set amount of minutes idle. There’s plenty of options for those wanting to ensure that they are keeping a consistent and robust restore schedule.
SECURE PATCHING AND UPDATING
A key practice of maintaining any endpoint system’s integrity is that of regular updates. An updated program can often mean that bugs and exploits are fixed, and new features are added to ensure that the program is best utilizing itself to ensure system protection.
While instant restore tools work to ensure that your systems are kept free of any unwanted changes, it’s understandable that machines will also need a steady stream of updates to ensure other security programs are kept updated.
Both RollBack Rx and Reboot Restore Rx offer one-click instant updates, meaning that with the click of a button you can ensure that your baseline or snapshots include the most recent updates.
Understandably, updating machines can be a time-consuming process, so there are a few additional methods to update the machine with Windows and Application updates in an efficient fashion. One way is to use the Remote Management Console (RMC) provided for free with all purchases of RollBack Rx Pro and Reboot Restore Rx Pro, this allows you to remotely run commands across all endpoint systems, meaning that whether you have a small group of PC’s or multiple large sites with PC’s, updating them is as easy as ever.
There’s also a feature exclusive to Reboot Restore Rx Pro, which allows you to automatically update your Baseline with incoming Windows and Application Updates, this will ensure that your Baseline is updated on a specified schedule so that only the specified updates are applied.
DATA AND SYSTEM ENCRYPTION
While it’s easy to overlook encryption, it’s an integral part of any endpoint protection. Encryption is in essence, translating your data into a secret code that is unreadable without a key or password. Leaving your data unencrypted means that any malicious attempts to view and capture your data will be made easy as the hackers will be able to view the data without any protection.
Whether your systems and data are at risk of physical or virtual theft, encryption ensures that the data and system are protected. Both RollBack Rx and Reboot
Restore Rx encrypt their data with 256-AES encryption to ensure that the protection provided is as robust and efficient as possible.
MASTER BOOT RECORD (MBR) PROTECTION
Viruses, Malware, and Ransomware come in all different types, but a common element of them is that many will try to infect your Master Boot Record (MBR). The MBR is a critical component of your computer that will in essence load you into Windows.
Some viruses will attempt to infect your MBR, viruses like this are called a boot sector virus. There are very little tools that protect your Operating System as well as your MBR, but both RollBack Rx and Reboot Restore Rx protect your OS as well as your MBR. Ensuring that regardless of the type of virus that will infect your machine, you’ll still be able to restore the OS and MBR back to a pristine state.
STEALTH AND PASSWORD PROTECTION
It’s understandable that users are curious, and wish to explore the systems that they’re working on. Sometimes this is harmless, other times this can end with some programs or services disabled, leaving the system vulnerable to malicious software and hacks.
Not only does RollBack Rx and Reboot Restore Rx restore the machine back to a previous state, thus undoing any efforts to uninstall or disable a program, but the programs themselves offer a wide variety of stealth and/or password protection options for preventing users from disabling or otherwise changing the settings of the software.
CONCLUSION
Any time we turn on a computer there is the potential to be open to a variety of threats and malicious trojans. Luckily, there are many restore on reboot solutions which can play a key role in providing essential preventive measures. Whether you’re using no protection at all, or are using other tools, Reboot Restore Rx and RollBack Rx are designed to protect your system whether as a standalone tool or within a multi-layered configuration. By taking these five tips into consideration, we’re confident that you will reduce machine downtime and increase your cybersecurity in simple, yet significant, ways.
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