Ransomeware is still common, and getting more sophisticated. I was reading about one called Maze the other day. They're aimed at businesses so they're good at detecting network connections and encrypting any volumes they can find. Maze also tries to delete any 'shadow volumes' it finds (I'm not sure what these are). ISTR reading that they can wait until drives are connected before kicking off. So it's vital to keep backups, or some of them, physically disconnected.

My solution was only practicable on a laptop which is used on the kitchen table. On a desktop it would be too easy to forget to unplug the drive.

If I had to set it up with ethernet I'd think of a way of unmounting or disconnecting the remote drive after use. I could for example connect the drive to a RaspberryPi and have the RPi unmount it, or shutdown, afterwards. Or power it via a timeswich that turns off after 5 minutes - enough to do one backup. (RPi's are cheap, and fun to use - if you're technically inclined. I use one as a music player, and a backup device - though I no longer worry about ransomeware.)