Pay VERY close attention to your inbox

This has been a very busy week in security.  There was a Microsoft DNS vulnerability that was so serious, computer administrators around the world were scrambling to patch production servers (in the middle of production hours).  Even Homeland Security issued a "24 hours To Comply".

Also, Emotet is back in full force.  If you are not familiar with Emotet, ars TECHNICA has a quick read that explains how this threat works.  Bottom line, the digital attackers are getting more intelligent, organized, and clever every day.  

Although One82 maintains controls to help protect our clients networks and computers from this type of attack, the first line of defense in security is you.  Take a lot of care to ensure the email you receive is from a trusted source.  If you or someone you know becomes infected, the threat actor will have intrinsic knowledge of everything you have ever communicated about in email.  They will use this information to send you emails that have familiar subjects and conversations, and they will try to trick you into thinking the emails came from someone you know.  These threat actors all have a common goal - getting you to share sensitive information such as login credentials, credit card information, or bank account details.

Think Before You Click

The most common way these threats enter corporate networks is through email. Often, scammers will include malicious links or attachments in emails that look harmless. To avoid this trap, please observe the following email best practices:

• Do not click on links or attachments from senders that you do not recognize. Be especially wary of .zip or other compressed or executable file types.  Be sure to carefully inspect the sender address.
• Do not provide sensitive personal information (like usernames and passwords) over email.
• Watch for email senders that use suspicious or misleading domain names.
• Inspect URLs carefully to make sure they’re legitimate and not imposter sites.
• Do not try to open any shared document that you’re not expecting to receive.
• If you can’t tell if an email is legitimate or not, please contact One82.
• Be especially cautious when opening attachments or clicking links if you receive an email containing a warning banner indicating that it originated from an external source.

If you or someone you know suspects that they might be infected and/or compromised let IT know immediately.  It is important to address these threats quickly to reduce the impact and spread.