Acronis True Image 2017, Personal Backup Solution With Anti-Ransomware and Blockchain-Based Capabilities

Acronis International GmbH announced True Image 2017 New Generation with Acronis Active Protection – active protection against ransomware attacks on user data, Acronis Notary- blockchain-based data certification and verification capabilities – and Acronis ASign – a consumer-friendly electronic document signing service.

True Image is a backup solution in the market that introduces Active Protection technology to detect and prevent ransomware attacks in real-time, automatically recover all data from the backup, self-protect backups and the backup application.

According to the FBI*, damages from ransomware are growing at an alarming rate, affecting thousands of people every day. This year, cyber-attacks will increasingly threaten data on every personal computer** and Acronis delivers the protection for user data.

True Image is a fast and complete personal backup solution, outperforming the closest competition by more than two times*** and protecting data on Windows and Mac computers, iOS and Android mobile devices, and Facebook social network accounts.

It delivers data protection for personal and family data using AES 256 encryption and stores it in multiple destinations, including external drives, NAS devices, network shares, and the Acronis Cloud.

True Image 2017 New Generation is a secure backup due
to new data protection capabilities:
    •    Acronis Active Protection for real-time active protection against ransomware. It identifies unusual activity on computers and prevents malicious applications from damaging user data, backups, and backup software. Behavioral heuristics detect and prevent new and known ransomware attacks, making the backup more secure, and reducing a number of times data need to be restored from the backup.
    •    Acronis Notary for Blockchain-based data authentication. It offers certification of the content of any file and verification of content modifications against the original version. ‘Digital file fingerprints’ are stored in a distributed, immutable database based on blockchain technology. Blockchain allows users to verify the authenticity of the information at any time. This is important for valuable documents such as contracts, medical records, and financial documents.
    •    Acronis ASign for blockchain-based document certification. It allows multiple parties to execute and certify a document with a secure and publicly auditable digital signature. Users can protect their backed-up documents, which are verified with Acronis Notary and electronically signed – all within the same backup solution.

“With more than 5 million people using Acronis True Image, we know how to provide data protection for individuals and families around the world,” explains Serguei Beloussov, co-founder, and CEO, Acronis. “With Acronis Active Protection, Acronis True Image 2017 New Generation is the ultimate solution for protection of data against cyber-attacks and an important addition to any anti-virus software, especially free or embedded antivirus software.”

“Modern cyber threats are changing the way people and organizations approach protecting their valuable data, demanding almost on-the-fly adaptation to ever evolving threats,” said Phil Goodwin, research director, IDC. “Acronis True Image incorporates interesting leading edge technologies designed to help thwart a range of threats and minimize any potential data loss.”

Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and CEO, Kaspersky Lab, said: “The world is facing a rising and increasingly dangerous tide of ransomware affecting individuals and businesses alike. Of course, ideally you should never pay criminals if your data is encrypted by ransomware; that’s all very well in theory, but when it’s your family photos or business documents encrypted, the idealism can swiftly go out the window. There are many measures that can be taken to avoid the damage from ransomware, but a high-end Internet security suite and a reliable backup disconnected from the system is still essential to ensure BC if the worst does still happen. And I welcome Acronis’s introduction of backup suited to this trend.”

Besides the unique new capabilities, True Image 2017 New Generation introduces 
more improvements and innovative features:
    •    Easy to use, modern interface: A touch-friendly interface across all devices with an easy-to-use web interface for remote data access and management.
    •    Additional features for Mac users: Unmounted NAS support for source and backup destinations, wireless backup of mobile devices to Mac computers with local data browsing capabilities; file notarization and electronic signatures via Acronis Notary and Acronis ASign, and support for Mac OS X Sierra.
    •    Complete mobile backup experience: AES-256 data encryption, file preview and recovery, browsing of all cloud backups from a mobile device.
    •    Backup and recovery capabilities for Facebook accounts: Browse and recover a Facebook account data to an existing or new account with data encrypted and stored in the Acronis Cloud.

“I chose Acronis for my family because I really need to trust my backup. With Acronis we can be sure that our digital belongings are safe thanks to this very reliable and fast backup and restore technology,” said Franz Tost, team principal, Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula 1 Team.

True Image 2017 New Generation is a new premium subscription for the True Image backup solution. Special upgrade pricing is available for the existing True Image customers.

Pricing starts at 99.99 a year for one computer and 1TB of Acronis Cloud Storage. Discounts will be provided for a few weeks after the product availability to celebrate the launch of True Image 2017 New Generation.

* http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/15/technology/ransomware-cyber-security/
** https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/incidents-of-ransomware-on-the-rise
*** Based on internal tests