Stop ransomware accessing your files with Privacy Fence

Privacy Fence is a free tool which aims to prevent untrusted applications from accessing your data, blocking threats like ransomware before they can do any harm.

The program starts by building a list of protected file types. Common file types are included by default, and key user folders -- Desktop, Pictures, Videos, Music and so on -- are scanned for other types you might be using. Privacy Fence then starts to build a Trusted Applications list by adding programs currently associated with your file types.

You can tweak the Trusted Applications list manually, adding or removing whatever you like, and there’s an option to always trust signed files.

Once you’re set up, Privacy Fence should monitor file access. If you open a file with an application which isn’t on the trusted list, then an alert is displayed, and you’re able to allow or block the action. There’s also an option to remember the decision, which means you’re not going to be prompted for that application again.

Sounds good... except it didn’t work for us. The developer says rebooting after installation isn’t necessary, but we tried it anyway, and the system finally kicked in.

Privacy Fence seemed effective, too. Almost too effective, with some 30+ individual decisions to be made in the first Alert box. We couldn’t do anything else, either, as the desktop was inaccessible, presumably because a key process was being blocked.

This wasn’t as bad as it seemed, fortunately. The alerts were all about key system and security processes, we wouldn’t have seem them at all if we’d opted to trust signed files. Once we trusted them all manually, Privacy Fences didn’t raise alerts about them again, and we were able to access the desktop.

Privacy Fence’s approach doesn’t guarantee your safety. For example, malware which injects itself into a trusted process will bypass any monitoring entirely. But the program is easy to set up, and it does offer a capable extra layer of protection. Check it out.

Privacy Fence is a free tool for Windows 7 and later.