Fast-Thinking Channel Partner Thwarts Crypto Attack with Carbonite

An Ohio-based systems administrator’s quick thinking and fast action saved a healthcare facility from certain disaster when a Crypto virus attack threatened to wipe out hundreds of important digital files.

Chad Mockensturm is an assistant systems administrator with Diverse Technology Solutions, a Carbonite Partner. An important part of his job is to monitor and maintain the IT systems of one of Diverse Technology’s customers, an Ohio-based healthcare facility. Mockensturm was doing just that one evening when he received a dire warning.

“We have an enterprise console that alerts us to any major problems, and I got a text message on my phone that a virus was repeatedly being blocked on one of the nursing station computers,” he said. “We later found out that one of the nurses had gone online to check messages and received a Crypto virus through email.”

When the nurse clicked the executable file, the Crypto virus found its way from the nursing station computer to the healthcare facility’s file server and began compromising important files. Mockensturm learned that the nurse had received a digital ransom note threatening to destroy the healthcare facility’s files unless money was paid.

“I immediately shut the computer down and proceeded to scan the file server for any infections related to the virus. We found that there were 200 to 300 files that were infected,” Mockensturm explained. “We scanned the rest of the network as a precaution and then used our Carbonite server backup account to restore good clean copies of the files that were infected.”

Quickly Restore Files with Carbonite

Diverse Technology Solutions has been using Carbonite to protect many of its clients’ computers and servers for years. But the incident at the healthcare facility was the first time the company used Carbonite to restore files infected by a Crypto virus.

To get the job done, Mockensturm simply logged into the healthcare facility’s file server and opened up Carbonite. He then did a quick search for the root folder that contained all of the subfolders and files that needed to be recovered.

“I restored the folders to a separate part of the hard drive, deleted the original ones that were encrypted from the virus and then copied the new ones back,” he explained. “Then I made sure that any programs linking to those files were able to work again.”

The process was simple, painless and quick. Mockensturm was able to restore clean copies of the infected files in about a half hour.

“I’m familiar with using the home computer version of Carbonite, and I can tell you that using Carbonite’s server solution is just as intuitive: You just go in and select the ‘restore’ task, choose the files that you want to restore and wait for them to download,” he said. “It was all really easy.”

Ready to start protecting your clients with Carbonite backup and recovery solutions? Learn more about the benefits of the Carbonite Partner Program and become a partner today!

Mark Brunelli is a Senior Writer on Carbonite’s Corporate Marketing team.