Urgent Alert about Ransomware — Please Read

We have seen an alarming surge in the number of attempts to infect computers with ransomware in recent months. We strongly urge you to take just a moment to read this entire message. The information we are providing can save your organization hours or even days of lost productivity, and perhaps even thousands of dollars in ransom.

1. Ransomware information

* What is ransomware?
Ransomware is a type of malware (or “malicious software”) that denies access to a computer or files until the user pays a ransom, i.e. monetary sum, to the ransomware originator.  Ransomware typically blocks access to files by encrypting them.  The files can be decrypted with the decryption key that is provided to the victim upon payment of the ransom.

* How does ransomware infect a computer or network?
The most common technique for transmitting ransomware is by delivering the malware as an attachment in an email message.  The email is made to look genuine, and it entices the user to open the attachment, which triggers the infection.  Once the computer is infected, the malware may spread throughout the network and infect other computers and shared folders.

2. How do I avoid infecting my computer with ransomware?
Follow these guidelines to avoid infection from malware:
* Never open an email message or attachment unless it is verified to come from a known safe source. Warning - email addresses can be spoofed. For example, a message may appear to come from your bank, the IRS, FedEx, a retailer or an acquaintance. Do not open an unexpected email message even from a known sender without first ascertaining its authenticity.

* Hover the mouse pointer above the hyperlink to verify that it is pointing to the expected website. Or better yet, go directly to the website in question by typing the known URL into a browser.

* When in doubt, contact the sender directly by phone or email to confirm that the message is genuine.

* If you unintentionally opened a questionable attachment or link, STOP immediately! Do not click on anything else. Press and hold the power button on the computer until it is shut down, and then contact eNet Systems for further investigation.


3. Proactive measures and mitigation
It is essential that important user files be reliably backed up. In case of infection by file-encryption ransomware, the files can be restored from backup, thus avoiding the need to pay a ransom to decrypt the files. Since a local backup is also vulnerable to ransomware, it is strongly recommended that the local backup be complemented by a cloud-based backup, which provides an additional layer of safety.

Read this ransomware article on our website.

eNet News Desk

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eNet Healthcare News Desk

There's a new trend in healthcare security and it's called micro-segmentation. "Every device in the hospital is a digitally connected device," explains Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell. "The attack surface grows exponentially. A lot of these attacks will come in via a fairly innocuous email that somebody clicks on. We see many organizations pretty unprepared for this. There’s been a rise in ransomware attacks. With micro-segmentation, you can tremendously increase your security." Ask us about micro-segmentation today.

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