Watch out for Ransomware

Please be on the lookout for suspicious emails containing attachments. They might appear to come from a legitimate sender such as your bank, ISP, client, or shipping company and will likely have an attachment that appears to be a PDF or DOC file. DO NOT OPEN attachments if your not completely sure what it is and who it's from.

Ransomware poses as a harmless email attachment tempting you to open it. Once opened your files and any server files it can access are quickly encrypted and held ransom. This is permanent and there is no way to decrypt the files without paying the attacker.

We've seen an increasing number of these infections in this area over the last few months. Unfortunately these infections have a high success rate at getting through anti-virus programs.

The best way to prevent this is to learn how to recognize these email scams. Here's an example of what one might look like (notice the Word Document attachment):

Not sure? Don't open it.

Ultimately you are responsible for your own security. Don't be under the impression that security programs and firewalls are going to protect you. One simple curious click can quickly destroy an entire company's file server.