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Monday 13 April 2015

Stop and Think Security Smart

Most of us are already aware that emails can contain hidden nasties but not all of us are aware what we can do to protect ourselves, this guide is to help you know what to do when you get an email that you are unsure of.

The Golden Rules

If you receive an email and you do not know who it is from or what it is about then, stop and think Security Smart.
If you receive a link in Facebook to something you do not know about from a friend, stop and think Security Smart.
If you receive an email attachment and you do not know what it is, stop and think Security Smart.
You would not let someone into your home without Photo ID, do not let the criminals into your Computer without first asking, do I know who you are?

What to do - The Email Attachment

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Here is a classic email attachment malware, the email is sent from a generic fake email address like support@yourcompany.com and is addressed to you, it has an attachment called something.ZIP and it asks you to
Update something on your computer because there is a problem
Take delivery of a parcel or invoice that we are waiting on
Accept a sales enquiry by opening their attached request
In 99.9% of cases these are always a criminal email targetting you, when you see an email like this delete it and then inform our Help Desk and we will investigate for you.

What to do - The FaceBook Video

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Many times we when access Face Book we see a video posted by a friend and we click on it, but when we do we are asked to install a new video player so we can watch it. Note the arrow showing that we need to install a player to see the video.
in 99.9% of cases these are always the criminals again, do not install anything from this site, it will give the criminals access to your Computer.

What to do - The Email Link

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The last common kind of email is the link to the criminals website, note the email above, it looks like it is from Google and it seems to say something that is acceptable and understandable, so you are inclined to click the link.
These are called phishing emails, its just a tech way of saying fishing and the criminals are fishing for you, if you click their link they have hooked you!
If a genuine site needs to contact you, when you next login the site will tell you what you need to do, genuine systems do not send emails like this.
Delete the email and do not click on any links.

How to stop our natural reaction

The criminals are targetting some of our basic instincts
  1. That we are naturally curious to find out more
  2. That we fear we may miss out on something if we do not take action
  3. That we go into automatic mode and do not always stop to think what we are doing
This happens to everyone, it is part of who we are, but all we need to do is stop anytime we are working on our computers and if something is happening you are unsure of or you are being asked to do install something you did not choose to do...
Stop and Think Security Smart!