{"id":59593,"date":"2019-08-13T13:16:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T17:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=59593"},"modified":"2019-08-13T16:01:53","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T20:01:53","slug":"new-ransomware-prompts-reminder-to-be-cautious-of-suspicious-emails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2019\/08\/new-ransomware-prompts-reminder-to-be-cautious-of-suspicious-emails\/","title":{"rendered":"New ransomware prompts reminder to be cautious of suspicious emails\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a new strain of ransomware making its way across Canada, the\u00a0<\/span>U.S<\/span>\u00a0and Europe, Brock University Information Technology Services is reminding the Brock community\u00a0to be cautious\u00a0<\/span>about<\/span>\u00a0opening email attachments and clicking on suspicious links.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The high-risk ransomware, called\u00a0<\/span>MegaCortex<\/span>, is targeting large corporate networks and workstations with huge ransom demands. The cybercriminals behind the ransomware use phishing and malicious email campaigns as an initial point of compromise to then spread larger, more powerful computer viruses.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>This particular threat shows exactly how sophisticated cyberattacks are becoming,\u201d said David Cullum, Associate Vice-President, Information Technology Services. \u201cThe\u00a0<\/span>MegaCortex<\/span>\u00a0malware has been redeveloped to be smarter and to protect itself against security professionals dealing with such an attack. The malware<\/span>\u00a0is automated,\u00a0<\/span>which means no manual effort is needed from the attacker once\u00a0<\/span>it\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0planted.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

News about the\u00a0<\/span>MegaCortex<\/span>\u00a0malware was received from the Ontario Cybersecurity Higher Education Consortium, a division of the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION), which Brock University is part of. The consortium offers cybersecurity guidance, programs and services to the higher education institutions that are part of ORION.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBrock University is fortunate to be a member of this community,\u201d said Cullum. \u201cWe\u2019re able to hear about cyberattacks at other institutions before they hit Brock. The data we collect from others provides us with specific types of active threats, when they\u2019re occurring and where they originated. In return, we share with the consortium any cyber threat data we receive. This sh<\/span>a<\/span>ring of information\u00a0<\/span>is critical to how we continue to\u00a0<\/span>develop\u00a0<\/span>mitigation strategies<\/span>.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Students and employees are encouraged to forward any suspicious emails to\u00a0<\/span>itsecurity@brocku.ca<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Employees interested in learning more about identifying malicious emails and cyberattacks are encouraged to\u00a0<\/span>register for a cybersecurity awareness workshop, You are the Target<\/span><\/a>, taking place Wednesday, Sept. 25 from 10 to 10:30 a.m. in the Computer Commons Training Room.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a new strain of ransomware making its way across Canada, the\u00a0U.S\u00a0and Europe, Brock University Information Technology Services is reminding the Brock community\u00a0to be cautious\u00a0about\u00a0opening email attachments and clicking on suspicious links.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":59595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,39,7484,40,7,3319,55,37,41,1,4,38],"tags":[5331,8159,3977,180,7895,134,7894,737,5332],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59593"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59596,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59593\/revisions\/59596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}