Columbia Ultimate (now part of the Ontario Systems family) posted an interesting article on its blog in April about "ransomware" and how it can affect your agency and your clients. What is ransomware? Just what it sounds like. "Ransomware is an access denial type of malicious software that can come from just about anywhere a virus can. As the name implies, once activated it blocks legitimate users from accessing files and demands some sort of payment or "ransom" before providing a decryption key or similar unlock."
These attacks have begun to strike the collection industry. Over a period of a few months just prior to this article specialists from Columbia Ultimate and The Intelitech Group helped restore operations at three separate collection agencies that had been victimized by ransomware attacks. They have compiled a set of guidelines (see ransomware is real) to help prevent these types of denial of service attacks.
Fake Ransomware Scam for Your iPhone!
Do you use an iPhone or iPad? You might be interested in this. A recent article from BGR Media reported that hackers have been able to fake some iPhone users into paying a fee to supposedly restore access to their phones. If you happen to see a new lock screen with a message like this - "This device is locked. Unlock 50$", followed by an email address to supposedly "unlock" your device - then you might be justifiably concerned. However, hackers have not actually blocked access to your phone and no ransom should be paid. The article recommends that you should still secure your Apple ID and all other online accounts.
For more information on how the hackers managed to do this, and for tips on securing your device, click BGR's Find My iPhone ransomware report.
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