2020 seemed to show ransomware continuing to grow in devastation and cost. Ryuk ransomeware reached a $34 million ransom payout, organizations were operationally brought to their knees by many of the prominent ransomware families, and the “as-a-Service” market for various parts of ransomware attacks – including the publishing of exfiltrated data – grew in interest. Some of these issues started about a year ago, due to IT departments having to rapidly push out work-at-home, address security issues with un-trained employees and having holes in their security for employees to remote into servers.
Sendero was prepared for a complete conversion from work to home last year keeping our client’s information secure during & after the conversion. Our employees are consistently trained in Cyber Security and emails are vetted for any abnormalities.
When viewing emails always check for malicious links and/or attachments. Some questions you should ask yourself when receiving an email, that is requesting information from you, has an attachment and/or a link:
- Are you expecting this email?
- Do you know the sender?
- Is the sender’s email out of the normal of what they normally email you? You may know the sender BUT they may have been hacked. Sending out email requesting information.
- Why do I need to click on this link?
If any of these questions fails, do not click or open anything. If needed contact the sender by phone or text. Replying back to them and they have been hacked, you will just receive an email from the hacker that the email is okay.
The web is full of Clickbait ads that should be avoided, no matter what it has in the ad. Clickbait ads, advertisements, or memes links, which are humorous images with a saying that spreads rapidly online, all encourage you to click and follow the story — otherwise known as clickbait.
These clickbait ads from third party vendors or a hacker that has put malicious code on the website can be very dangerous to click on. Malicious code could be downloaded to your system by clicking on the ad.
4 words to live by when going through emails or surfacing the web.
Think before you click
David H. Coull
Senior Systems Analyst
210-805-0171
Information came from KnowBe4
