Quarterly Newsletter Q2 2023

In today’s digital age, it is crucial to stay informed and proactive about new technologies as well as protecting our company’s data and systems from cyber threats. This newsletter aims to provide you with valuable insights, best practices, and updates regarding cybersecurity measures.

Phishing Scam of the Quarter

What is “A file was shared with you” phishing scam and how do I identify it?

In today’s email and data sharing world, more often than not, co-workers will share files through a variety of platforms like DropBox, Google Drive, SharePoint, Teams and OneDrive.  This is a great method of quickly sharing important documents and information across multiple groups and teams.

Inevitably, co-worker accounts will get hacked.  Hackers will then use those hacked accounts to share files with multiple if not all people in an organization.

As an example, let’s look at a SharePoint file sharing method.

Looking at the image on the left, a user will receive what is a legitimate email sent from a legitimate account.  The file will also be saved in the company’s Sharepoint share locations.

This makes identifying this as an illegitimate email almost impossible.

The problem is that what the hacker shares is typically a virus, malware, or another phishing scam to gather more usernames and passwords from unsuspecting employees.

So how do you protect yourself from such an exploit?

If this is not a normal type of email you get or are not expecting from any co-workers, reach out to your co-worker and ask if they sent it.

If they did not send you the shared file, contact IT support immediately to confirm if their account has been hacked.

If you do receive these types of emails on some frequency, here are some additional steps to think about:

  • Hover over the link in the email and confirm that the URL points to the service you are trying to access.  In this example, it should redirect you to SharePoint

  • If you click on the link and it redirects you to log into Office 365, check the URL at the top and make sure it’s routing you to Office 365.  If the link has something other than microsoft.com, sharepoint.com or microsoft.com in the first part of the URL, close the browser immediately.

  • If you click on the link and it redirects you to a site other than where you would expect to go, close the tab and then the browser immediately.  In this example, it should be clear that an Excel file should open up in the browser in Office 365.
  • If you’re still confused, contact IT support.  They would be more than happy to help you and them avoid a virus or data loss incident.

The above example can happen in any of the other file sharing services out there.  At the end of the day, it’s always best to be vigilant and reach out to help in the event something doesn’t feel right.

What’s the best way to help mitigate these events from occurring?

  • Slow-down – Most, if not all these scams rely on our reptile brains to react immediately without thinking. By slowing down, you can limit your exposure of becoming a victim.
  • Be skeptical – Never share personal information such as email addresses, passwords, your name and address, or other information that may help scammers steal your identity.
  • Contact IT – If something doesn’t feel right, you’re probably right. Forward messages to your IT department as they have tools that can confirm the validity of the emails you are receiving.
  • Implement MFA – Adding 2-factor authentication on as many of your accounts as you can to help limit your exposure to being hacked.

What do you do if you think you’ve been exploited?

  • Contact IT – The IT team can help quickly assess how far a hacker has gotten in the exploit. They will be able to provide guidance around what accounts have been exploited and how to hopefully stop the attack from progressing.
  • Contact your manager – Let management know that there has been an incident and they will help provide the necessary guidance to mitigate any risks to your company.

Unfortunately, cybercriminals continue to exploit people in a variety of ways. The good news is by education, you will begin to recognize these attacks quickly and limit your exposure to becoming a victim.

Additionally, by using IT resources that are part of your organization, you have a team behind you that can help decipher what’s real and what’s a scam. By using these tools, your organization can work together to minimize the threat and help keep business rolling along.

 

Microsoft 2-Factor Authentication

Over the course of the last year, Microsoft has been pushing the need for users to configure their 2-factor authentication on their Office 365 accounts.

This is a security measure that helps protect your account, especially email, from hackers being able to log into your account and send malicious/phishing email.

It will actually help you from being a target of the hack described above related to the SharePoint file sharing.

By the end of this year, if you have an Office 365 account, you will be required to configure this setting.  If you haven’t already added this feature, please click on the following link for instructions on how to set this up on your account.  Setting 2-Factor Authentication Link

 

Help IT Help You

To better serve your IT support needs, here are some quick tips to help us provide you the best support possible:

  • Screenshots – Attaching an image of the issue you’re experiencing goes miles in our ability to quickly decipher your problem and speed up the time to resolve your issue.  The Microsoft Snipping tool is a quick and easy way to get that screenshot.  If you click on start and type in Snip, you can open up that tool to take a quick screenshot.

  • Helping a friend? – If you are entering in the ticket for another co-worker, please provide their full name and a phone number or other means of contact.
  • The 5 W’s of Issue Resolution – By providing us some of the 5 W’s below, we can better manage and resolve your issue:
    • Who is having issue?
    • What is the current issue?
    • When did the issue occur?
    • Where is the issue occurring?
    • When is the best time to help you?

We hope you find this information helpful.  We look forward to continuing support you and your teams.

Have a great day!

Thanks,

GO Technology Group