Think of all the valuable data your PC contains (pictures, files, invoices, contacts, etc). Now imagine losing all of that data Virus' are still a thing but you should be more worried about ransomware, worms and all of the other digital creepy crawlies roaming the net looking to make you their next victim.
Go read my article entitled "How to secure Windows 10".
Backup everything, then back it up again
In 2012, I wrote an article entitled "The best way to protect your data - images, music, documents". The main point is that you should always remember the 3-2-1 rule of backups:
- Have 3 copies of all of your important data (1 primary and 2 backups)
- Make sure your 2 backups are on separate media technologies (e.g.1 on a hard drive and the other in the cloud or 1 on a hard drive and the other on a tape backup)
- 1 of your backups should be offsite in a remote location that would not be impacted by a major disaster that hits your area (e.g. in the cloud).
The advantage of most cloud backups is that they support version control which means if you infect your files with ransomware, you can always go back to a known good version. My backup strategy involves:
- 1 primary version of my data and a local hard drive backup
- 1 complete synchronization of my files on a fully encrypted trust no one online storage service
- 1 complete backup using a remote backup service (like backblaze or carbonite)
Update everything
WannaCry created an incredibly outcry in the tech world with thousands of companies getting infected in hundreds of countries. The truth is that an update published 2 months prior patched that vulnerability. Updating computers in large companies is complicated but your home PC shouldn't be.
You must must must update your operating system and applications regularly to stay protected.
The latest version of the operating systems from Microsoft, Apple and Ubuntu are all configured to auto-update themselves. In addition to the OS, make sure you periodically check for application updates.