Different types of email attacks and what to do to be safe.
The threat of email attacks increases each day, do not underestimate them. The intention of these emails is to trick you into sending money or revealing passwords to accounts, banking information, Social Security numbers, EIN’s, mother’s maiden name, date of birth, or other personal or company information.
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You should know about the various types of malicious emails and how to avoid them. In this document I’m going to cover two of the most common malicious emails you might face with your business and how to avoid them.
 
Phishing Email Attacks
Phishing emails refers to instances where the scammer sends out a mass email to every address they can glean by whatever method. The hope is that at least a few people will be gullible enough within that mass emailing to respond and send cash or personal details.

Some examples of Phishing emails:

• They ask you to confirm your credentials to some online service, like your online banking or webmail.
• They email you a document and when you attempt to open it you’re asked to login to what you think is your email system, it’s not.

 
Business Email Compromise Attacks
Where Phishing emails are generic in nature because it targets a large audience, Business Email Compromise(BEC) attackers do their homework by gathering information like names of company officers, your organizational structure, and companies you deal with, including financial institutions. They use this information to steal the identity of company officers or owners to defraud the company or its employees, customers or financial partners.
 
Some examples of BEC emails:

• An email arrives that appears to be from a high-level executive within the company, a business partner or company attorney. Since the email address has been spoofed, it appears to be legitimate. A request for a wire transfer is included in the email, which urges the recipient to take immediate action. I’ve also seen request to purchase VISA gift cards.
• Again, pretending to be an executive officer, they email employees asking for login information to financial institutions, the email system, or other confidential information.

 
How not to be a victim:

1. Look for bad spelling and/or poor grammar in an email claiming to represent a company or organization. However, they are getting more sophisticated so don’t assume it’s legit because of proper spelling and grammar. 
2. Watch for spoofed emails- Guardian protects our customers domains from being spoofed, however, they can get around this by using a similar spelling of your domain. Instead of ABCSUPPLY.COM they use ABCSUPLY.COM, or even abcsupply@gmail.com.  Make sure emails have the correct spelling on the “from” address field or inside the message header. (Email spoofing is a forged email message that appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source.)
3. A request for money should be treated with suspicion until proven otherwise. Always confirm requests for money.
4. Do not trust emails asking you to confirm your password. Or, they email you a document and when you attempt to open it you’re asked to login to what you think is your email system. STOP, it’s not your email system and you’re supplying them your credentials.
5. Do not publish employee email addresses or other sensitive information on your company website, social media or any online publication.
6. Develop security policies within your company, your vendors, and customers. 
   

​If you have questions or feel you've experienced a compromise you should call Guardian immediately.

​Of course, you should also make sure your computer or device is protected with security software.  Look for our next article called "How to protect your home company."

    3. Once open, click on the scan button. 

    4. When the scan is finished running, click on the clean button. 

    5. Your desktop icons may temporarily disappear while this cleans your system, this is normal, do not worry.
    6. Press OK when asked to close all programs and follow the onscreen prompts.
    7. Press OK again to allow AdwCleaner to restart your computer and complete the removal process. 

    8. After your system restarts, a text file will open with a log of what was removed. Feel free to read through it or              close it.
    9. Open up AdwCleaner.exe once more, and click on the Uninstall button to remove AdwCleaner from your                      computer. 

Notes: If you have any issues, please contact us here. ​​

    4. Once open, navigate down until you see the Print Spooler service. Right click on this and select ‘Stop’ this                    service. 

    5. Next navigate to the following folder and delete all the content inside. C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS

    6. Now right-click again on the Print Spooler service and click ‘Start’. 

    7. Refresh the print queue, the problem should be resolved. 

Notes: If you have any issues, please contact us here. ​​

    3. On the following screen, titled “Microsoft Outlook Setup”, make sure the “Yes” button is clicked.
​    4. On the next screen, enter your name, email address, and password in the respective fields. Click Next. 

    5. The Exchange server will automatically configure your email account. (This can take several minutes).

    6. Once done, select Finish.
    7. Outlook will do some additional configuration and you will be brought to your inbox. (You may be prompted to                enter in your password once more, make sure to click “Remember my password”).
    8. Once at your Inbox, Outlook will sync all of your mail, which can take up to several hours depending on how                  much  data you have stored in your email. 

Notes: If you have any issues, please contact us here. ​​

    3. Once the download is complete, double-click the file to begin the installation.
    4. Follow the instructions on the installation screen.
    5. After you finish installing Malwarebytes, run the program.  
Running Malwarebytes:

1. In Malwarebytes, click the Dashboard tab in the top left corner.

    2. Click on the Scan Now button in the middle of the window.

    3. Malwarebytes will check for updates and then begin scanning. (If any harmful software is detected, Malwarebytes          will flag the items for quarantine.)

    4. Once the scan is finished, a Threat Scan Results window will popup, where you can review what has been                    flagged for quarantine.

​    5. Click on the Quarantine Selected button at the bottom right corner of the window.
    6. Once finished, you can review the scan report, or export the summary to a file.

Notes: If you have any issues, please contact us here. ​​

    2. Choose the Windows features you would like to clean by simply selecting their check boxes. When selecting to               clear certain options, a warning text may appear. Read the warning and click OK to dismiss the box.
    3. Click the Applications tab. The programs in this tab will depend on the software you have installed on your                     system.
    4. Choose which programs and features you want to clean. 

    5. Click on the Analyze button. CCleaner will analyze the applications and Windows features you selected.

    6. Once the analysis is complete, you can decide which files will be deleted in the text window.
    7. Finally, click on Run Cleaner. You will be given a warning that Ccleaner is going to permanently remove files from          your computer. Click on OK to proceed.  ​

    8. CCleaner will display a report of the deleted information. You can save this list by right-clicking the text window            and then click Save to text file.

​Notes: If you have any issues using CCleaner, please contact us here. ​