Its less than a month since we sent out a reminder to our users to update their systems and some pratical advice on staying safe while on your computers (see Heartbleed steps) and again we are hit by the biggest security threat “known to man”. Check out our simple steps to stay safe below, but first lets look at the state of the current reporting.
This threat is reported in all the main media (BBC, and MSN to name but two) but the advice is patchy and confusing.
The BBC state in their article “What going to happen to me …… nothing”. It’s nice to see some confidence is this ever increasingly risk sensitive world, but I doubt the BBC will be accepting claims from people who are affected, as they go on to say “and therefore it is extremely likely that very soon the operation will start up again”. So I guess they mean ” nothing until something happens”.
MSN split the story into three articles the main one not covering an action plan at all, just the justice departments attempts to bring the currently at large perpetrator to book. Their final paragraph amusingly states “a federal judge in Pittsburgh granted a temporary restraining order against Bogachev and the others, demanding that they cease such activities”, almost sounds too polite, when you consider they have already swindled 100’s of $1,000’s, including $750 (£450) from Massachusetts police department, and two transfers totaling over $370,000 dollars from PNC bank to name but two.
So what is the threat? There are two current virus’s they are distributing GOZeuS and CryptoLocker. Cryptolocker has been around for a while and is particularly invasive. It locks all your data and you have to pay a ransom to release it – and people do. Ordinary people have paid up and got their data “released”, not just big organisations. If there was ever a good reason to back up here it is.
Gozues scans your hard drive for financial information and then when it finds some transmits it on. If none is found it launches Cryptolocker. The FBI have had success shutting down the “network” that was to launch the latest attack but suggest it will takes two weeks for the masterminds, who were not caught, to set it up again, hence the “2 weeks”.
Both viruses are sent out as emails with links to click on – they may come as a password reminder or an email from a “friend” so our second piece of advice is not to click on email links unless you are sure what they do.
We offer our advice below :
The message is the same for Heartbleed warning we sent out earleir this month, keep your operating system up to date (no XP we are sorry to say), keep your anti virus up to date (use a Sevenoaks Computers approved solution, to stay out of trouble) and don’t download anything from the internet that says it will improve your PC, especially for free! Although there are a number of viral programs purporting to help your PC that people pay for!! They are mainly junk and not necessary, if your PC is running slow, get it checked out by a professional (may I recommend our workshop or onsite engineers!).
Remember finding new ways to get you to install these viruses is these fraudsters full time job.
So Backup, don’t click on links you aren’t sure of, and make sure your PC is up to date.
