Own an ASUSTOR NAS? Read this immediately.

DeadBolt is holding ASUSTOR NAS data ransom.

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What you need to know

Reports are coming in onRedditand the officialASUSTOR forumthat NAS enclosures are being attacked by DeadBolt ransomware, similar to what affected QNAP servers. DeadBolt infects the NAS and encrypts the data stored on installed drives, blocking access for the owner.

The GUI is then altered to show a customized screen with details on the attack and request for payment. This attack seems to have taken place on NAS with different configurations. It doesn’t seem to matter if EZConnect is enabled and we’re not yet sure what’s the cause for allowing such an external attack to take place.

As reported byTom’s Hardware, this also makes it impossible to know which models are vulnerable (if not all). Affected NAS owners are being asked to provide 0.03 Bitcoin for an encryption key to be sent across. I don’t recommend you do so unless your data is incredibly important and ASUSTOR is unable to provide a solution.

ASUSTOR is currently recommending affected NAS owners to:

If you haven’t yet been affected, I’d highly recommend you back up all the data saved on the NAS (even if you own thebest NAS). Ensure automated updates are disabled, disable SSH, and block all external access to the NAS (limit the enclosure to the LAN). This is a perfect time to invest in an external drive to store a copy of all the files stored on your NAS.

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Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He’s been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at@RichEdmonds.