DisasterRelief
Active Member
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2016
- Messages
- 77
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi, I am looking for some advise on the current flavour of phishing attacks and protection against it. I have been a bit out of the IT game over the last few years so I'm definitely out of date.
Here is the scenario:
My mom calls me yesterday saying she got a virus on her laptop and took it to her local computer shop. She is a regular customer as I'm too far away to lend assistance and I've managed to drill some sensibilities into her over the years on basic online security and so on. Basically if something weird happens, rather go to the computer shop and get it checked out.
Anyway, she describes to me how something came up when she tried to open Outlook, which told her her Outlook has been corrupted and she needs to use some other "thing" called Outlook reviewer or repairer or some such to access Outlook and fix it. She clicks on it and barely a few minutes later she receives a phone call from a Jo'burg number, claiming to be Microsoft and that they will help her fix it.
She freaks out, slams down the phone and immediately shuts her laptop. The guy then calls back saying she should not turnoff her laptop as he still needs to fix it.
In the end the computer shop reported that they indeed found a number of viruses on her laptop. In my mind her laptop has already been compromised and any number of confidential pieces of information could have been stolen already.
Does this type of attack sound familiar to anyone? Apart from up-to-date antivirus software, are there any additional non-tech savvy protections one can use on a Windows laptop? Personally I think training is the best defense for people who may not be as comfortable with technology.
Here is the scenario:
My mom calls me yesterday saying she got a virus on her laptop and took it to her local computer shop. She is a regular customer as I'm too far away to lend assistance and I've managed to drill some sensibilities into her over the years on basic online security and so on. Basically if something weird happens, rather go to the computer shop and get it checked out.
Anyway, she describes to me how something came up when she tried to open Outlook, which told her her Outlook has been corrupted and she needs to use some other "thing" called Outlook reviewer or repairer or some such to access Outlook and fix it. She clicks on it and barely a few minutes later she receives a phone call from a Jo'burg number, claiming to be Microsoft and that they will help her fix it.
She freaks out, slams down the phone and immediately shuts her laptop. The guy then calls back saying she should not turnoff her laptop as he still needs to fix it.
In the end the computer shop reported that they indeed found a number of viruses on her laptop. In my mind her laptop has already been compromised and any number of confidential pieces of information could have been stolen already.
Does this type of attack sound familiar to anyone? Apart from up-to-date antivirus software, are there any additional non-tech savvy protections one can use on a Windows laptop? Personally I think training is the best defense for people who may not be as comfortable with technology.
