Employee Education & Cyber Security

Cyber Security Tips

Employee awareness is more important than ever.

As you may have read or heard on TV /radio, there has been a brutal ransomware attack a little closer to home – Mecklenberg County – by a new strain of ransomware called LockCrypt. You can read about it here: Charlotte Observer News Story.

This ransomware attack scrambled data and documents, including backup files, and demanded a ransom of $23,000 for the code to unencrypt the files – essentially “paralyzing” the county government. Officials decided to not pay the ransom, since there was no assurance that they would get the code. They are working through restoration on their own and it will take several days to resolve.

The cause of this county government shutdown? An employee inadvertently opened an attachment that contained spyware and a worm. According to the above article, the sender appeared to be a fellow employee – making it seem to be a normal communication. However, it was not.

This is a reminder to all of us the importance of vigilant layers of security, including employee education.

Here are a few tips to reduce your risk:

• Do NOT open ANY attachments from people you don’t know, no matter how pressing it seems or tempting it is to open. Delete it. If it’s truly important, they’ll call you.
• Be on high alert for phishing e-mails from PEOPLE YOU KNOW. If it “feels” off or wrong, don’t click on any links or open the attachment. Their system could be compromised and being used to scam everyone in their in-box.
• Pay attention to email addresses, not just the name of the sender. For example, the contact may be a person’s name you know, but under closer look, the address may show a letter off (shooshintech.com instead of shoshintech.com) or may be completely different and unknown.
• If any Microsoft Office application ever asks you to “Enable Macros,” do not accept.
• If you get a call from the “tech department” requesting you log them in, HANG UP.
• Only go to known, ESSENTIAL websites.
• Do NOT connect to the company’s network (e-mail, cloud apps, etc.) via unprotected home PCs or personal devices.

If you suspect an attack or virus, do NOT reboot. Disconnect the PC/device from the network and call us immediately.