Daily Archives: September 23, 2020

• Patch Lady – uh best to be on guard while surfing

  Posted on September 23, 2020 at 18:07 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  So I was reading a news story from a web site on my iphone and this popped up.  Others have reported it as well.

  In the past it’s been reported that it’s a fail of a google-doubleclick advertisement, but I have enough Reynolds wrap on my head to be on the safe side and to close the browser app on my phone.  I have seen javascript files in banner ads on Windows machines trying to load up malicious payloads.  Therefore I’ll err on the side of caution and close the app.

  Let’s be careful out there and remember you can always shut down a device, close a browser, and back yourself out and not click open or download

  Internet Patch Lady Posts

• Get a password-protected ZIP file attachment? Just say “Emotet”

  Posted on September 23, 2020 at 15:48 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Of course you know that you shouldn’t open file attachments sent via email, without independently verifying with the sender that it’s legit.

  And even then, you should think twice.

  It looks like Emotet, the malware that delivers TrickBot and Qbot data-stealing software, is on the rise once again. Emotet first appeared in 2014, bounced around for a while, went into hibernation, then returned with a vengeance in 2019. It basically disappeared in February, 2020, but it’s now riding high.

  You’re most likely to get infected if you open infected Word files or, increasingly, password-protected ZIPs. Per Catalin Cimpanu at ZDNet:

  The Emotet gang operates an email spam infrastructure that it uses to infect end-users with the Emotet trojan. It then uses this initial foothold to deploy other malware, either for its own interest (such as deploying a banking trojan module) or for other cybercrime groups who rent access to infected hosts (such as ransomware gangs, other malware operators such as Trickbot, etc.).

  The latest from Cimpanu:

  The Emotet crew was hoping for a quick return to full capacity, but its comeback was spoiled and delayed for almost a month by a vigilante who kept hacking into Emotet’s infrastructure and replacing its malware with animated GIFs.

  Many times, and especially in large corporate environments, an Emotet infection can turn into a ransomware attack within hours.

  Be careful out there. And never, never, never click on an attachment unless you independently confirm with the sender that it’s safe.

  Windows Security Emotet