Email security advice

Published: 6 December 2013

The Internet is currently awash with bogus emails containing viruses or malicious code, appearing to come from Royal Mail and other carriers, banks, Skype, scanners and copiers, friends and colleagues. This is a new type of virus attack called Ransomware and it is SERIOUS. *

The Internet is currently awash with bogus emails containing viruses or malicious code, appearing to come from Royal Mail and other carriers, banks, Skype, scanners and copiers, friends and colleagues.
This is a new type of virus attack called Ransomware and it is SERIOUS. *

What you need to know:

  • It’s potentially extremely bad
  • It’s connected to organised crime
  • It involves the extortion of money
  • It can cause large-scale file loss and could disrupt whole Services, Colleges and Schools.

What you need to do:

  • Follow our usual advice: Always:
    - Treat ALL unsolicited email with suspicion, regardless of whether or not the sender appears to be an organisation or person that you think that you can trust.
    - Avoid opening attachments or clicking links in unsolicited email
    - NEVER send passwords by email
  • If you notice anything unusual or wrong in relation to your computer or email, please let IT Services know immediately even if you clicked on something you perhaps should not have. We need to take remedial measure as quickly as possible to minimise damage.

What IT Services are doing:

  • IT Services are already using a wide range of measures to prevent or mitigate this type of activity.
  • We will take additional steps to deal with this and similar threats and this may cause a change in some working practices. For example, all email messages from outside the University of Glasgow which contain zip files will be returned to sender with advice on how to use the University's file transfer service.

Why is this happening?:

You may know already that SPAM and malicious email is a huge problem worldwide. The culprits are continually changing the way they attack in order to sidestep any preventive measures in place. The University prevents most SPAM from reaching your inbox but it is a fact of life that some is always going to get through. The only sure protection is for you to be vigilant.

 

 *Ransomware usually sneaks into a system disguised as an email attachment and, if opened, then proceeds to encrypt the files on your machine and any network drives (filestore) you are logged into. When this has completed the virus deletes itself and tells the user that their data has been taken hostage and will only be released if they pay the demanded ransom for a key. Like in any hostage situation you can never guarantee that the criminals will honour their terms.
You should not engage with the criminals but contact IT Services immediately

 

First published: 6 December 2013

<< December