Hi Shelly,
On 11/10/16 21:03, Shelly Hermia Bhujun wrote:
>
> Regarding that 'receipt' attachment, I thought that ransomware would
> imply receiving an email or a notification or pop-up requesting a
> certain amount of cash in order to retrieve the lost data but nothing
> happened. So, was it really ransomware or just some virus? Is there a
> way to scan emails in order to avoid such issue? Is antivirus or is
> there an alternative software which is more reliable?
>
The name says it. It is when an attacker asks you for payment (a ransom)
to return you something which once was yours (your files/data).
From what you explained, it does not appear that your colleague's
computer was infected by ransomware. At least if that attachment was a
malware as serious it did not run correctly/completely. That's the good
news; otherwise your colleague would have already got the message to pay
a ransom for his/her files.
Now, even if it's not ransomware that does not mean it could be just
something trivial. Anything malicious that runs on a computer can cause
damage at some time. For example, what appeared to run and does not
appear again, could actually be logging the keystrokes and sending that
information to someone. I'd advise to get an IT fellow check that
computer and make sure nothing malicious is running the background.
As for email having anti-virus, Gmail, Hotmail etc do scan the
attachments but just like any other antivirus they would not identify
something they do not know yet. Besides if a company has it's own hosted
email; it's often the case that they do not scan email attachments.
Check this part also with the IT fellows.
Cheers,
--
Ish Sookun
I drink coffee and manage Linux servers for lexpress.mu.
Received on Wed Oct 12 2016 - 04:19:48 PST