Windows 10 will use protected folders to thwart crypto ransomware
One of the "features" (back in the day) of running a diskless system was that you could set change policy on the server hosting the file which was completely out of reach of the "client" machine that was running the program. For nearly all of the system files there was no reason for them to change. NetApp turned this into a huge win when they could use snapshots to support multiple VM images with just the small configuration changes.<p>Given the well known benefit there, and that the processor on your hard drive is about as powerful as your phone, why not have the drive set up files that are 'read only' unless allowed to change out of band. Here is how it would work.<p>Your disk works like a regular SATA drive, except that there is a new SATA write option which can write a block as 'frozen'. Once written that way the block can be read but not written. You add an out of band logic signal and wire it up to a switch/button that you can put on the front (and/or) back panel. When the button is pressed the disk lets you 'unfreeze' or write frozen blocks, when it it isn't pressed they can't be changed.<p>Now your hard drive, in conjunction with a locally operated physical switch, protects sensitive files from being damaged or modified.