Microsoft Upgrades Office 365’s OneDrive With Features Against Ransomware Attacks

Microsoft is exerting effort in protecting consumers from cybercrime. The Redmond giant is upgrading OneDrive, which is part of the Office 365 experience, to ensure the security of data users are saving to the cloud storage service.

In this day and age, cloud services are typically targeted by ransomware. Users could lose numerous documents and their treasured photos in just a zap because of a ransomware attack. It’s good if everyone is doing regular backups, but the reality is not too many people anticipate ransomware attacks. This is why Microsoft is updating OneDrive with security features.

According to The Windows Club, Microsoft is bringing the Files Restore feature of OneDrive Business to the personal OneDrive service. This is to ensure that users who have been attacked by ransomware could easily and quickly recover their files.

By bringing Files Restore to OneDrive, users are given the ability to restore their entire OneDrive storage back to any point in the last 30 days. The feature was originally intended for use against mass deletion or fire corruption, but it’s also a good remedy for ransomware attacks that make files irrecoverable.

Microsoft is backing Files Restore with a feature called Ransomware Detection & Recovery. From the name itself, this feature is designed to help systems detect ransomware. It also logs pertinent information like the time and instance of an attack so users would know the best point of restoration for their files.

In addition to detecting ransomware, the feature sends notifications to users via email, desktop and the OneDrive mobile app to inform them about a recent attack. The notification comes with a restore window that shows the date and time of the attack and the option to restore to a point before that, as per Notebookcheck.

There are other features that Microsoft is adding to OneDrive including Password Protected Sharing Links, Email Encryption and Prevent Forwarding. The first one sets passwords to shared folders so unintended recipients won’t be able to access them. The second feature provides end-to-end encryption for emails. The third feature restricts recipients from forwarding emails, so they remain with the intended recipients only.

To enjoy all of these new OneDrive features, users are required to subscribe to Microsoft’s Office 365 service.