It is Black History Month, but it also contains Groundhog Day, Valentine\u2019s Day, President\u2019s Day (remind me, why did we decide to smoosh all of those birthdays into only one day?), and let\u2019s not forget my favorite: National Margarita Day (2\/22). For a short month, this is chock full of \u201cdays.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s all that have to do with computers and security?<\/p>\n
Quite a lot!<\/p>\n
Every day, there is another announcement of some form of threat to your security: a data breach here, a ransomware attack there, new forms of malware, some other scheme for mining cyber-currency from your computer or smart phone, and even more sinister, the ever-present phone calls from \u201cflaming idjits\u201d that tell you about a problem with your computer that they<\/em> have detected and called to help you fix. Please!<\/em><\/strong> That one just makes me angry. (Although you might be amused at the sheer number of individuals whom I\u2019ve told to engage in physical acts that would require contortions beyond the ability of most\u2026)<\/p>\n I know that no one can be kept on \u201chigh alert\u201d day after day without getting weary of it. It is tough for me, and it is a major aspect of my job. I am always pleased when one of my clients gets an email and forwards it to me to ask, \u201cIs this legitimate?\u201d or \u201cWhat should I do about this?\u201d That means you\u2019re staying on your toes and looking out for your own safety. That\u2019s what I want you to do; that\u2019s what I need you to do.<\/p>\n However I don\u2019t know how many others are getting emails and continuing down the path of \u2013 there\u2019s no other word for it \u2013 ignorance, and clicking on that link. Because, despite all of the protections that I\u2019ve put in place on your computers, there is still the risk that if you click on a link in an email something bad could happen.<\/p>\n 1. First of all don\u2019t panic, although that\u2019s what most people do.<\/p>\n 2a.\u00a0 Simply pull the Ethernet cord from the back of the computer (there\u2019s a little hitch to squeeze in before you unplug it).<\/p>\n 2b.\u00a0 Business owners, you need to make sure the affected computer is no longer communicating with the server.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Do NOT turn off the computer!<\/strong> You will lose any forensic information that is available. I\u2019m going to need that data to help remediate the problem.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Call me immediately, and use your phone to send me an email with a photo of what\u2019s on your screen so that I can identify the exact nature of the problem.<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 Let me handle this for you \u2013 it is not a \u201cDIY\u201d (do it yourself) project! Don\u2019t start \u201cGoogling\u201d for the fix! Some Russian firm with 500 employees wrote the malware and will charge $79.95 to your credit card to fix the solution they created in the first place. And it won\u2019t get fixed \u2013 you\u2019ll simply be scammed\u2026<\/p>\n 6a.\u00a0 After I have assessed the damage, and if it is necessary, you can reach out to the local police and to your insurance company.<\/p>\n 6b.\u00a0 For business owners, this is a reminder to make sure you get, or review, your cyber-liability insurance policy.<\/p>\n There, some \u201ctough love\u201d on Valentine\u2019s Day. I hope that you don\u2019t have to go through any of this, and can simply relax and enjoy National Margarita Day with me.<\/p>\n Thanks and safe computing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is Black History Month, but it also contains Groundhog Day, Valentine\u2019s Day, President\u2019s Day (remind me, why did we decide to smoosh all of those birthdays into only one day?), and let\u2019s not forget my favorite: National Margarita Day (2\/22). For a short month, this is chock full of \u201cdays.\u201d What\u2019s all that have …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everyone","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions\/292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}So what should you do if you are attacked?<\/h3>\n