When a virus infects your computer and modifies your files, some of those files may be uploaded to your Network Drive or your Backup Vault. Nobody wants to be in this situation and we'll help in every way we can.
Before we begin, it's important to identify common misunderstandings and address them:
- Jungle Disk Support doesn't have access to your data, so we cannot delete it for you or run antivirus scans on it server-side
- Your data is enclosed in containers. Even if files infected with a virus were uploaded to your Cloud Files or S3 account, they cannot infect other files while uploaded - a computer (connected to the disk) would have to run the virus in order for the infection to spread
- Infected files cannot be moved from one Online Disk to another unless you have both Online Disks open/connected to the same computer
Part 1: Disconnect and Scan
- Shut down Jungle Disk's connection by stopping the Jungle Disk Service.
- Windows) Go to Start > Run > "services.msc" > then find and stop JungleDisk*
- Mac) Run the first command in terminal shown on this page for the version of Jungle Disk you're using: Click Here
- Linux) First, check in terminal for name of any running JD services by using: "ps aux | grep jungle". After that, use "service [name-of-the-service] stop"
- Once this is done for all computers that usually run Jungle Disk (at home and at work), run your antivirus software to scan your entire computer and fix any problems it finds.
Part 2: Save Data to Local Hard Drive
- Start the Jungle Disk service back up on one computer and monitor this computer for the next 24 hours to see if anything strange happens (virus related)
- Windows) Go to Start > Run > "services.msc" > then find and start JungleDisk*
- Mac) Start the Jungle Disk Activity Monitor and you'll receive a pop-up asking if you want to start the service (click OK/Yes here to do so)
- Linux) use "service [name-of-the-service] start"
- While this is going on, download / restore all irreplaceable files to your computer (we recommend an external hard drive so you can keep these on a drive separate from your computer's operating system in case they are infected)
- If you are unable to view your files on the Network Drive, check Web Access to see if your files/folders are visible there. If you can see your files in Web Access, it's likely the virus has hidden them from your Network Drive.
- Once you have all the files pulled off of the disks you need, run another scan on this entire computer and on the external hard drive to check and fix any new virus-related problems
* Note: Even if everything looks good here after 24 hours, there is no sure way to verify 100% that nothing else was changed/modified, then uploaded to your Online Disks. We would recommend continuing with Part 3, but the choice is ultimately up to you.
WARNING! DID YOU SAVE YOUR DATA ALREADY? IF NOT, STOP NOW AND RETURN TO PART 2. ONCE PART 3 IS COMPLETE, ALL DATA ON OUR END WILL BE PERMANENTLY DELETED!
Part 3: Delete all Online Disks
- If using Workgroup Edition, you can do this from The Jungle Disk Control Panel -- but if using SimplyBackup, Desktop Edition, or Server Edition, you would need to do this from within your Jungle Disk Activity Monitor
- Create new Online Disks to replace the old ones (Workgroup would do this from The Jungle Disk Control Panel as well, while other versions would do this from within the JD Activity Monitor)
- If using Workgroup, ensure that all users have the appropriate permissions to this/these new Online Disk/s
* Note: Do we recommend reformatting your computers? Not necessarily - but if you can, then do. No antivirus is completely perfect, and there are bound to be some files that were missed from time to time.
On the other hand, antivirus companies focus their best and brightest moments on finding and resolving issues that viruses cause in computer systems. Like with Part 3 (deleting all online disks), choosing to reformat all of your computers is entirely up to you.
Our stronger recommendation to delete/recreate all online disks is built out of the knowledge that Online Disks are used to sync across multiple computers. Because of this, a virus that would normally live on only one computer can unintentionally wind up on another, making the possibility of network-wide infection much greater (depending on how your network, online disks, and antivirus are configured).
What to do going forward?
- Avoid adding your Jungle Disk Network Drives to your antivirus's Realtime Scanning Folder Exception List. While it is a good idea to prevent antivirus from running scheduled scans of your Network Drives, it is not a good idea to prevent antivirus from scanning a file when you as you open it directly from the Network Drive.
- Keep antivirus updated and installed on all of your computers
- Follow up with any reports of virus-like behavior from your users as quickly as possible
- Keep all of your operating systems up to date as often as possible and don't use older operating systems since these are at a higher risk for infection
- Educate your users on how to spot virus-like activity (folders that suddenly have ".exe" at the end of them, for instance) and reassure them that reports of these kind are welcomed and very important to you and the stability of your company's computer infrastructure
- Feel free to contact us to let us know the symptoms of what you're experiencing - if it's a virus we've heard of before, we may have some tips or be able to relay information to you that other users have provided us with regarding specific viruses if we have heard of them.