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ZDNET's key takeaways
Google is adding ransomware detection to its Drive for desktop utility.
The feature uses AI to detect likely attacks and stop syncing encrypted files.
It's available as a beta release today for commercial customers at no extra cost.
To an organization, nothing is more disruptive than falling victim to a ransomware attack.
A successful attack means that the organization's files are forcibly encrypted and their business grinds to a halt until they pay a ransom or restore a backup. That's bad for profits if you're running a factory that manufactures widgets, but ransomware can kill people if the target is a hospital or healthcare system -- and there were more than 1,000 such attacks against healthcare providers in the U.S. alone between 2010 and 2024.
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Recovering from a ransomware attack is possible if an organization has good backups, but that's a time-consuming process. It's also expensive, with the typical cost of a ransomware incident measured in the millions of dollars.
It's much more effective to stop the malicious code before it can corrupt the organization's files and render them unusable.
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