Evil low-lifes, Malware emails and virus attachments

[airdave]

Can't believe how fast these low-lifes work, and how they will take advantage of any situation to hurt innocent people.
And its amazing that most of these online scammers are based out of India....one of the worst hit places when it comes to disasters like the Covid outbreak.
You'd think if anyone would have some compassion, they would...but apparently not!

Only a few weeks into this worldwide pandemic, and already there are malware emails circulating that use this disaster to fool and cheat you.

I guess this is a warning if you haven't already been targeted...

I got an email yesterday from an "anonymous friend" stating that I may have come in contact with
and been exposed to someone that has been diagnosed positive for the Covid19 virus.
It warned me that I might need to seek medical attention and get tested immediately.
And attached to the email was an xls document (Microsoft excel spreadsheet style) that contained some important information I that I would need.

Obviously I did not touch that attachment.
This is the most common method of distributing viruses known as RansomWare, that infect and encrypt your computer files.
Warnings appear on your computer telling you to call a certain phone number and you have to pay a ransom amount to retrieve a code to unlock your files.
Unfortunately, this is also a scam, since once files are corrupted by these viruses, they usually can not be recovered,
and so, after you pay the ransom, you will still not retrieve your data!

I immediately check the sender of this email...identify the "anonymous" friend...and its an email address I do not recognize.

I recommend you do this with any email you receive...always look to the senders email (often its beside the Sender's Name at the top of the email).
Its very simple for incoming emails to appear to be from someone you know.
They are encoded with the ability to pull an identity from your Address Book once they arrive at your computer
and then place that name in the header/title of the email making them appear to be from a known contact.
But the original source email and IP information will not be altered, and you need only look to the sender's email address to be certain.

Never ever ever click on, open, or even touch an email attachment unless you are 100% without a doubt certain of where the email came from.
Even if its from someone you know, ask yourself "am I expecting this?" and "do i want to receive this?".
Maybe someone you know was already scammed and is now innocently forwarding the attachment to you!

Never open an email to read it until you have confirmed its source.
If you are using an email program (like Outlook, Thunderbird, etc), use the preview window to view the contents of the email.
Sometimes, just clicking (to view) an email can activate malicious content.

Always check the Sender's email and make sure it correlates to the Senders name.
Think about any attachments...and unless you are already expecting something from someone you know...don't touch them!

[CMDRTED]

I'd like to put some clarity about our friend the covid. I work in a rural er in Smyrna Delaware, part of a larger health care organization. we are doing overtime/hyperdrive trying to contain this and ease the panic associated with it. The only contact you should receive from health care will come from your local state dept of public health. and then only if you went to a facility to be tested. You can get emails from your personal contacts that stated they may have xyz and call them. you would think if your circle of friends/contacts were trustworthy you'd a) recognize who it was and b) you'd remember being with them. this is along the line hi baby you remember that night we had well I have a rash... No health care agency is going to anonymously contact you about any disease that you may have contracted. they want a long trail of legalized notices, so heed Dave's advice and dump this scam BS.

[FRD]

It was almost a year ago that we were the victims of a ransomware attack.

[airdave]

Easiest way to deal with ransomware (if you ever get it)
is call the number that appears on your screen and say "F**k Y*u" very loudly.

Then reinstall your files from the backup hard-drive you maintain regularly.

What? you have no back-up harddrive?
Shame on you.

I know it doesn't help after the fact...but a lesson learned...
-I make copies of my C-drive (operating system drive) once in a while (on a backup harddrive in my computer).
-I make two copies of the data on my D-drive (all my current work and files) regularly (...on that backup harddrive in my computer).
- I make less frequent copies of my E-drive (with all my Documents, Photos, etc. (...also on the backup harddrive in my computer)

I also have a cloned C-drive(SSD), in case my C-drive hardware ever fails.*

*hardrives are cheap now...buy a back-up drive...
any size, as long as its big enough to contain your current operating system Drive.
Then "clone" your operating system drive.
Many Drives (especially SSDs) come with the basics needed or offer simple cloning software on the manufacturers site.

Don't forget to regularly reclone the drive, updating and overwriting whats on the back-up drive.

When and if you lose your computer, for whatever reason (hardware failure or ransomware)
just remove the operating system drive and plug in the clone drive and restart your computer as if nothing happened.
Depending on how long its been since you made the last copy, you might lose some recent changes to your system.
But you'll be up and running within seconds and no ransom paid!

[John Bowden]

Already gotten 4 phishing emails pertaining to Amazon Prime not being able to charge my credit card and wanting to verify my info...............guess the crooks working from home so as to not get the virus.

[SteveB]

Very sound advice. I think one of the problems is that modern hardware is (generally) so reliable that people forget all about backing up data, until the inevitable happens. Then they get a surprise to see how much stuff they've lost because it's so long since they backed anything up! Even a memory stick is better than nothing, and they're cheap as chips these days!

[airdave]

Since we are still on the hardware topic, heres something I didn't think about until this past year.
Your harddrive(s) have a shorter than you would expect lifespan.

They may be a lot more reliable, but they still have a limited lifespan.
(although, I have 20 year old IDE HDDs that still function quite well!)

About 3 years ago I switched to a Solid State Drive for my operating system.
I needed about 200Gb, so I bought a 300Gb unit.

This year I have been struggling to maintain less than 80% capacity
and SSDs work best at well below 75% capacity.
So, I decided to upgrade again to a bigger SSD.

And thats when I discovered the expected lifespan of an SSD.
According to the manufacturer, they are only rated at about 3-5 years.

Obviously this is going to vary wildly with different use,
and I expect to get more than that out of it.
There are ways to extend the life of your harddrives.

But realizing that you should plan for hardware failure (as part of normal use)
makes you realize you nee...no, you must... have a backup.

And having that backup drive (with a copy of your operating system on it)
will guaranty you can also recover from a virus crash or ransomware attack.

[Butelczynski]

You guys listed just few of the reasons why I never,ever keep important files on my comp.

All important files get downloaded to external drive,some get burned on file formatted DVD and stored away.I don't don't know hum much grief that saved me.Must be a lot since I had to reformat my comp twice and I never lost anything of value.

One thing I'm doing recently is getting into habit of checking emails not on comp but on disposable tablet when I'm hooked up to wifi during my McD coffee breaks.If something happens tablet is a throwaway idem (I get mine from second hand sources).

[airdave]

External drive is a harddrive connected to your computer via a cable.
The big (internal) storage harddrive inside my computer case is connected to my computer in the same way.
My "computer" being the processor, mainboard and operating system.

I try not to store files on the same harddrive, or harddrive partition, as my operating system.
I think thats what you are trying to say.

Backing up any harddrive...internal or external, is the smart thing to do (if it has anything important on it).
So, do you have a backup for your external drive?
It still has a limited lifespan...and every time you connect it to your computer, its vulnerable to the same viruses and malware.

My opinion...Discs are not completely reliabl
e...I have found that data corrupts over time on discs,
and discs are more easily damaged.
I stopped saving files that way.

If you are worried about emails, just check them and leave them on the server.
As long as you don't download any contents of an email to your tablet or PC, it doesn't matter.
Many of us like to use an installed email handler.
I let my onboard program download emails, but they are backed up on the server,
and my onboard antivirus scans incoming email.
And I just don't touch unknown attachments.

[SCEtoAUX]

Don't forget to be wary of text messages going to your phone. I have received a few text messages that were obviously phishing scams. I wonder how many people open links in text messages from sources they are not familiar with.

The latest just today was from some place saying they could not charge my credit card for my Netflix account. I don't have a Netflix account so no wonder they could not charge my credit card. They do not have the credit card number anyway but I am sure they would like to get it, along with bank account numbers, and social security card numbers, etc. etc.

I back up all of my hard drives daily to external storage. Like Dave mentioned that is a good habit to indulge in.