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Does Microsoft’s One Drive Protect You from Ransomware?

February 6, 2017

Specifically, you can restore Office files by using Version History if your local file gets encrypted by ransomware. There is still a little confusion about how Microsoft deals with non-Office files in One Drive. Paul Thurrott is trying to clarify exactly how Microsoft may protect you from ransomware infections. The latest Microsoft response stated "While Version History only works with Office files, OneDrive has the ability to restore both Office and non-Office files through the Recycle Bin if ransomware deleted the original file and re-uploaded it (often with a different name or file extension)."

That begs the obvious question. How do other syncing cloud storage providers (e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive, SpiderOak, etc.) deal with ransomware infections? The problem with cloud synching storage providers is that if your file gets encrypted locally, it may also send that encrypted file to the cloud and overwrite the good file that was already there. You want to make sure that you have the ability to restore from a prior version. Dropbox, Google Drive and Spider Oak all have the ability to restore prior versions of files, but does the file storage solution you use restore a prior version?

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