Urgent Security Threat

By Kevin Wade
President and CEO of IntelliSystems

Recently at IntelliSystems, we have noticed an increase in email ransomware attempts. There is no way to guarantee that you or an employee will not open one of these unsuspecting emails, but we would like to equip you with some tips that could potentially save your data, money, and time.

Many of the emails that we are getting reports of look like this:

The sender’s name may be different, but note the Word document’s .rtf extension. This stands for Rich Text Format, and in this case contains ransomware. If you open this file your computer will prompt you to “download” or “enable macros” on your computer so it can open the file. DO NOT enable macros, and close and delete the email as soon as possible. This is not limited to just one file extension, ransomware targets files which have extensions such as odt, doc, docx, xls, ppt, xlsx, pptx, mdf , psd, jpg, and so on. Basically all of the files that are usually valuable for businesses; suggesting that the threat is designed to target organizations.

If you do enable macros, embedded code will execute the malware on the machine. After the encryption process has been complete, you’ll see a notice describing the requirement for you to pay a $300 (or more) “ransom” fee within 72 hours of the original encryption to obtain the unlocking key and decrypt your files.

Be Prepared with the Following Recommendations:

• Keep your computer’s operating system and software up to date, they are target of most attacks. Ensuring these have the latest updates greatly reduces the number of entry points available to an attacker.
• Maintain up-to-date antivirus software, and scan all software downloaded from the internet prior to executing.
• Make sure that you have a firewall and that your subscription is up to date.
• Restrict users’ ability (permissions) to install and run unwanted software applications, and apply the principle of “Least Privilege” to all systems and services. Restricting these privileges may prevent malware from running or limit its capability to spread through your network.
• For IntelliSystems customers: Ask us about an IntellAlert! service that locks down new programs from being installed on employee workstations.
• It may be best to block email messages with attachments from suspicious sources.
• If you care about it, back it up!

I hope these tips will help in keeping yours and your clients’ information safe from the hands of others, and save you money from having to pay to get your information back. Moral of the story is this: Do not click on a link or attachment in an email unless you’re positive that it’s from a trusted source. If the email looks slightly suspicious to you, that’s because it probably is suspicious.

Kevin Wade is the President and CEO of IntelliSystems, a local IT management and telecommunication company with offices in Columbia, Aiken, and Augusta. In addition to meeting the technology needs of small and medium-sized companies, including sourcing computer and networking hardware and software, providing day-to-day IT support, installing cabling and wireless network systems, and design and installation of telephone systems, IntelliSystems provides training and consulting for businesses based on best practices. He can be reached at 803-563-6363 or by emailing him at [email protected]. For more information visit www.intellisystems.com.

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