Ransomware is rapidly infecting companies, meaning you need to stay vigilant.
Ransomware is when a group of people create a virus and send it through email to attack various companies, whomever they can reach through ATTACHMENTS (Word, Excel, PDF etc.) or LINKS. These Ransomware viruses block access to data and demand ransom to gain access again (which could be thousands of dollars). These emails may come into your inbox or clutter and could be from someone you’ve emailed before (if they have a virus, it will go through their email and send out new links without them being aware).
Note the following:
- If you see an email with an attachment that you don’t know is secure, delete it immediately WITHOUT clicking on the link/attachment and call the sender to verify that they intended to email something to you.
- Most Anti-Virus software is unable to catch these threats as they’re so new and nasty that we have to keep our eye out
- These viruses will block access to all folders on the network – if you find you’re unable to access folders (eg. My Documents or the shared F Drive) please call IT support immediately.
- These attachments may have sneaky titles like Invoice000001.PDF or Document00000001.xls
- **If you do open a Word or Excel document, DO NOT click ‘Enable Editing’ or ‘Enable Macros’ as that is one way the virus gets into the system**
Moral of the story: do not open attachments unless you are 100% sure they are secure
If you have questions, call Pund-IT Inc (519-342-4004) and we will gladly help.