Acronis, a global leader in hybrid-cloud data protection and storage, today announced Acronis 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 - the most consumer-friendly electronic document signing service.

"Acronis True Image is the first and only 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," says Peter French, MD of local Acronis distributor Synapsys Systems.

According to the FBI^1, 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^2, and Acronis delivers the ultimate protection for user data.

Acronis True Image is the fastest and most complete personal backup solution, outperforming the closest competition by more than two times^3 and protecting data on Windows and Mac computers, iOS and Android mobile devices, and Facebook social network accounts.

"Acronis True Image delivers ultimate 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 secure Acronis Cloud," French says.

Acronis True Image 2017 New Generation is the most secure backup on the market due to new unique data protection capabilities:

* Acronis Active Protection for real-time active protection against ransomware. Acronis Active Protection identifies unusual activity on computers and prevents malicious applications from damaging user data, backups, and backup software. Cutting-edge behavioural heuristics detect and prevent new and known ransomware attacks, making the backup more secure, and reducing the number of times data needs to be restored from the backup.

* Acronis Notary for blockchain-based data authentication. Acronis Notary offers certification of the content of any file and verification of content modifications against the original version. Unique "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 especially important for valuable documents such as contracts, medical records and financial documents.

* Acronis ASign for blockchain-based document certification. Acronis ASign 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 reliable backup solution.

"With more than five 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 of 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 anti-virus software."

"Modern cyber threats are changing the way people and organisations 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 minimise any potential data loss."

Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and CEO of 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 business continuity if the worst does still happen. And I welcome Acronis's introduction of backup suited to this trend."

Besides the unique new capabilities, Acronis True Image 2017 New Generation introduces many more improvements and innovative features to secure Acronis's position as the leading, fastest and most innovative consumer backup provider:

* 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 notarisation 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 data backup. With Acronis we can be sure that our digital belongings are safe thanks to this very reliable and fast data backup and restore technology," said Franz Tost, Team Principal of Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula 1 Team.

Pricing and availability

Acronis True Image 2017 New Generation is a new premium subscription for the award-winning Acronis True Image backup solution. Special upgrade pricing is available for the existing Acronis True Image customers. For more details, contact Synapsys at www.synapsys.co.za.

1 http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/15/technology/ransomware-cyber-security/

2 https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/incidents-of-ransomware-on-the-rise

3 Based on internal Acronis tests.