02/17/2018
Here it is, my first write up in a series of articles addressing the ever increasing threat of Identity Theft and Cyber Security attacks. I believe that understanding the true nature of the situation is key to increasing awareness and elevating your safety. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks.
To kick off 2018, Simptech will be posting security tips throughout the year. The tips are a must and also have merit due to the fact we have seen them all ignored with catastrophic results. The first one we shall discuss is "FAKE NEWS". Be very, very careful about which content you click on when reading an email about a celebrity, powerful person or even a family member having trouble, needing money or even death. We have a real situation to use as an example.
The first was a client had received and email from a good friend stating they lost their travelers checks and was currently stranded and needed financial assistance. This friend was actually traveling abroad and the scammers even had the name of the hotel they were staying at, in the email was a link to "Western Union". Now, the client contacted us after clicking this link. They did not erase the email, so we were able to see it in real time. All the information was accurate, the email address had be hijacked (password had been obtained by scammer), so they were able to use this person's real email address to send news of the fake situation. The scammers were also smart enough to use a legit Western Union logo for authenticity.
However, the link downloaded a worm that had jumped from her laptop to her personal PC at home via a piece of software that was out of date. This malicious piece of malware, in less than 24hrs, disabled windows updates on both PC's, disabled both PC's anti-virus software’s and was in the process of emailing all the recipients in the contact list more false information with a link. The only reason the client had suspicion was because she was receiving email denial notices (undelivered mail returned to sender errors) from outdated emails in her contact list. This also meant the clients email account had been compromised.
It was a lengthy process of first, changing the email account password, then disconnecting both PC's from the internet (i.e. Turn Off the Wi-Fi router or disconnect any access to the internet). Then, running multiple programs to find and remove the worm (virus) files from both computers. Once we were sure the worm was fully removed, Windows Update and the Antivirus program where re-enabled and then forced to update immediately. It does not end there, next we had the client contact her friend overseas, inform them of the situation and have her also disconnect any digital device she had, from the internet. Then, once the PC was fully updated, the Antivirus was updated and producing a clean scan, we emailed the list of contacts, letting them know to ignore this email for financial assistance. This took over 2 days to accomplish and in that time the worm had made its way to 3 of the clients’ contacts. In this case the clients identity and sensitive accounts where not compromise.
The main points of this scenario would be to 1) When you read an email containing content that has a cry for help or a story of great gravity, "The president of the U.S. has been shot.", take the time to pick up the phone and verify the information. 2) Change your Email passwords often. We recommend at a minimum every 3-6 months and if you subscribe to various news feeds, newsletters or other online services (i.e. PayPal or Amazon), you should be changing your email password monthly. You are all saying, what? Sounds like a ton of work and remembering them just got harder. Simptech has an easy to use method for handling such tasks that make it easier to manage. We will not divulge the information here for one major reason only. If perchance, one of these scammers reads this information, it will only help them to combat the solution. 3) This is the major point and this behavior must be practiced. BE AWARE OF WHAT YOU CLICK ON. There is a misleading element to the simplicity of clicking a link and clicking the wrong link could result in total file loss forever, hundreds of dollars lost to fixing the compromised computers or the theft of your identity.
This is just one example of thousands we have encountered over the years, yet the worm is most often seen via email. If you have any questions or you or someone you know has encountered this situation, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for listening and look for more, free tips on how to spot the scam.
