Dan’s Desk: A Series of Security Memos – Ransomware

Security Memo 1: The Dangers of Ransomware

**This is the first in a series of memos, straight from Dan's desk, helping you understand more about easy security steps for your work and personal use. Dan Boehm heads TopLine's security and IT department.**

In an effort to further enhance your company’s cyber defenses, we want to highlight a common cyber-attack that everyone should be aware of – ransomware.

Ransomware is increasingly being used by hackers to extort money from companies. Ransomware is a type of malicious software that takes over your computer and prevents you from accessing files until you pay a ransom.

Below are some easy things you can do to help avoid a ransomware/malware attack:

Think Before You Click

The most common way ransomware enters 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.
• Do not provide sensitive personal information (especially usernames and passwords) over email.
• Watch for email senders that use suspicious or misleading domain names.
• If you can’t tell if an email is legitimate or not, please reach out to IT.
• 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 Something Seems Wrong, Notify IT

If your computer is infected with ransomware, you will typically be locked out of all programs and a “ransom screen” will appear. In the unfortunate event that you click a link or attachment that you suspect is malware or ransomware, please shut down your computer and notify IT immediately.

It takes us all working together to help to keep networks, and people, safe from these cyber threats. We are active and diligent in our security practices so other companies can trust more.

 

Dan Boehm
Chief Information Officer

Stay tuned for more memos from Dan's Desk in this helpful series on security.

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Is your CRM system vulnerable?

If your organization uses a CRM software such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM), Salesforce, Zoho or other web based systems then you shouldn’t have too much to worry about.  Since these systems are typically hosted in secure datacenters around the world they are not as vulnerable to Ransomware attacks as other on-premise and manual strategies such as Excel.  Let TopLine Results evaluate your customer relationship management strategy to find out if you could be targeted.