That “support call” could be ransomware…

That “support call” could be ransomware…

Do you know what caused the government of Lake City to pay a $500,000 ransom to hackers?

Someone called an employee there and claimed to be IT support. They then remoted into their system, gained access to sensitive files, encrypted anything in its path, and then held it for ransom. The city council had no choice but to pay for it.

This all happened back in 2019… and it is even more real today.

Ransomware hackers will do anything to try to get that money, including calling and pretending to be “IT support” to convince you to let them in.

Or you will get a big popup message on your screen with sounds and voices saying that you’re infected and that you need to call “Microsoft” and then supply the hacker’s phone number…

They’ve recently taken this scam to a whole new level.

They will flood your inbox with loads of spam emails and then call to offer to “fix” the problem. Clever, right?

They’ll even use Teams accounts to make employees think they are part of IT.

If successful, your whole company could be affected, locking you out of your data, shutting down operations, or, worse, potentially leaking confidential information.

So what do you do?

The best thing you can do is let your team know if you see anything like this. It’s far more effective coming from a team member than anyone else. Then, encourage your team to run these requests by the actual IT department if they are requesting to remote in or install software.

Oh, and if you use Teams in your business, make sure it’s set to only allow external chats from trusted domains and that chat logging is enabled.

Of course, we can help you secure your setup. Just send me a message or give us a call.