Don’t Get Hooked!

Tom Baugher, Community Security Director

It is estimated that 89 billion spam emails are sent each day. Broken down to the individual, approximately 50% of the emails we receive each day are spam. (Incidentally, the word “spam” as applied to unwanted emails is taken from a Monty Python skit about a diner where every menu item had the meat product Spam in it. One customer hated Spam and did not want it, but she had no choice. The word has since entered our computer age lexicon to describe a similarly unceasing, ubiquitous, and unsolicited email.)

In this sea of legitimate email and spam, there is a more sinister criminal variety known as a phishing email. The criminals who are behind these phishing emails are looking to fool you into clicking a hyperlink, opening a file, or calling a phone number. This is all in an attempt to steal your passwords, identity, and eventually your money. Approximately 3.4 billion phishing emails are sent each day and that about 30% of phishing emails are opened.

As frustrating as it can be to avoid spam, the real headache starts if you fall for a phishing attempt. Hopefully, your updated antivirus program protects you. If not, your computer could be infected with malicious software (or malware for short).

Many times, victims quickly realize they should not have clicked or downloaded something, but if you do not have that “oh no” moment, below are some indications your computer has been infected with malware.

• Your computer suddenly starts to behave unusually and slows down, crashes, or displays repeated error messages; 
• Your computer pops-up a lot of advertisements;  
• Your computer switches to a new search engine or opens search tabs on its own.  
• You are notified by friends that they received an email from you that you did not send

If you believe your computer has malware, you need to clean it or buy a new one. A professional service can remove malware for a fee, but sophisticated attackers often leave “backdoors” on a compromised computer and removing them all can be difficult, if not impossible. There are steps you can take such as recovering or reinstalling your operating system, but it may be safer to buy a new computer. In this instance, below is the advice I recently gave an associate who suffered such a sophisticated attack. 

1. Disconnect the computer from WiFi and turn it off. This computer is “fried” and should not be used again. Hopefully, you have a back-up of the data that was on the computer. If so, this should be an “air gap” back-up (meaning there was no connection between the compromised computer and the back-up. You can make such an air-gap backup by purchasing an external drive for your computer. They are small and inexpensive.
2. Lock-down any bank accounts you do not need to access. Your bank most likely will allow you to place a temporary block on different accounts and limit withdrawals and wire transfer debits.
3. Change ALL of your passwords from another computer that was never connected to the compromised computer.
4. Enroll in a credit watch program (See, https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/best-identity-theft-protection/)
5. Enable and require two-factor authentication on all your financial accounts, social media, email, etc.
6. File a report at www.IC3.gov
7. Do not answer any calls from unknown numbers. Let them go to voicemail and then callback if needed.
8. Turn off your WiFi router, perform a factory reset/re-boot, change the password, and disable remote administration for the router.
9. Buy a new computer with good anti-virus and VPN.

Hopefully, you never need to take the above steps. By thinking before you click, having a good spam filter, only using established numbers and emails for trusted contacts, and using an update anti-virus program you will avoid the overwhelming majority of malware infected phishing attempts.