Regular backups with the drive disconnected from your machine when you're not backing up or restoring and a second (or more if you're paranoid) drive somewhere

Regular backups with the drive disconnected from your machine when you're not backing up or restoring and a second (or more if you're paranoid) drive somewhere else entirely in case your house burns down. The best free options here are jwz's method[1] and Time Machine. Ransomware can't encrypt files that it can't access because the drive is disconnected, and by having a spare somewhere else (updated once a month or so) you prevent yourself from losing everything if you don't notice the malware and it eats your local backup drive. I use Little Snitch configured in Silent mode to Deny All and then I allow only the things I want to go outbound out of my machine (though I do let my machine talk to my home network freely). You might want to consider that. I also use Avast's free antivirus for the Mac, but with the Email and Web shields off. I find that overkill when I have the File shield (real-time protection on file access) already enabled. [1] http://nullrefer.com/?https://www.jwz.org/doc/backups.html http://nullrefer.com/?https://www.jwz.org/doc/backups.html (Edit: fixed the referrer to the jwz page)