Friends, today’s newsletter will be discussing computer security and the reasons why computer users get infections. This is a serious epidemic as some infections, such as Ransomware, can be deadly to your computer data. This is not just affecting PC users as now Mac computers are getting infected.
In the past week, I have seen more computers have virus infections than in the past 3 months. For some reason, computer users tend to open any email that arrives and will click on a link or a file attachment. Then, they get the infection.
For example, look at the email image below. The first look at this message is that it came from Chase Bank. The signature looks official, but let’s dissect this message a bit further. First, look at the email address from Chase. If this was actually from the bank, the email address would state something like employeename@chase.com. However, be very cautious of opening any documents with an email extension of other than .com, .net, .us, etc. Foreign Extensions may include these samples: CA (Canada), RU (Russia), EU (Europe), & BZ (Belize). Next, look at the recipient – if it was addressed to you, it would have your name, not “recipients”. Lastly, look at the web link to click on. That is not Chase.com. Also, Banks and Financial Institutions (and the IRS) will not send this type of message. Any issues would be sent via US Mail.
Now, lest look at the 2nd email. This arrived recently from Allstate Insurance Company. Or, so it seems to be. The wording “Dear Email Address” is an immediate indicator, since it not addressed to the Recipient. In addition, the Login web link is not an Allstate address. And lastly, I don’t have insurance with Allstate. So, why would I click do anything with this message?
So, the recommendation is that if you don’t know the person sending the email or don’t have an account with the company, DO NOT OPEN it. Just delete it.
Look at this screen shot of a web browser. This suddenly showed up on your computer and you don’t know what to do. DO NOT call the number shown. If the notification is from Microsoft, DO NOT call the number shown. This is a Phishing Scam and the likelihood is that you do not have an infection. Best course of action is to call an IT specialist. Simply closing this window and running a security scan on your computer will resolve the issue. As an example, recently one of our clients called the number. She was told that she had over 1,300 viruses on her computer and if she paid $500 they would be removed. Fortunately, she called ENC and we resolved the issue much quicker and cheaper.
So, if you think that only PC’s are infected, see the security scans from 2 different Mac computers. Both were infected and the customer’s didn’t know about the infections. The proper security software will clean any issues before you know about it.
We recommend that you have a paid security software product protecting your computers. In addition, we recommend an external backup solution to protect your data. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reports that 76% of all businesses will fail within 2 years after a disaster, like the loss of data from a virus infection.
If you would like a free quotation for Security Software or an off-site backup solution for your business, please send an email to service1@elite-nac.com.
Source: Elite Networking & Consulting,