New Malware Threat: How To Protect Yourself

This Notice is to inform you about a new malware threat, which is spreading at an alarming rate. This exploit is being transmitted via email, so we’re urging our friends to be sure to only open attachments that you are expecting, and ones that are from a reputable source.  If you have any problems or anomalies, please contact thinkIT Solutions immediately.

This new malware campaign spreading “Locky” or “Locky Files” is a type of ransomware-a type of trojan malware that locks your computer files and demands money to unlock them.   This article  contains all the details on the Locky outbreak. Here are the three things you need to know:

1. How Do You Get Infected?

The Locky ransomware is exclusively spread via email attachments that look like Microsoft Word Documents.  As a rule, the email in question will have a subject line that looks similar to “ATTN: Invoice J-11256978” and will include an attached Word document with a title similar to “invoice_J-11256978.doc”

Be on a strong lookout for phishing emails suggesting to take action by opening an attachment in your email, especially if it is an email from someone you do not know.

  

3. Actions to take if you believe you have opened a file you were not supposed to:

 

Please contact thinkIT if you have any questions.  We can be reached by email at service@thinkITsolutions.com or by phone on 504-455-5552.