Dangerous Email Viruses Continuing Threat

Over the past few weeks we have had an increase in the number of occurrences of viruses on campus. These viruses are usually spread through email messages with attached files.  The senders use clever methods to entice the reader to think that it is important to look at these files.  Additionally some are utilizing legitimate Andrews email address, sending the email as if it were from an actual person at Andrews University.

Some of these viruses encrypt files and ask for a ransom to get the files decrypted. They attempt to encrypt files stored on the computer’s hard drive, external hard drives and flash drives, all shared and network drives and even Dropbox and Google Drive that the user has access to. The result is a loss of all files that are not backed up in some way that is immune to the virus.

The following are key recommendations to minimize the damage done to files you access and other files on shared University resources.

1. Do NOT click on attachments that come from people, known or unknown to you, that you are not expecting.
2. If the message is caught in the email Quarantine it is especially likely to be a virus.  Email from Andrews addresses would only be in the Quarantine if they are sent from off campus servers. Any message from an Andrews email address in your Quarantine message is very likely to be coming from someone impersonating an Andrews person and could be carrying a virus. 
3. If you are asked to enable macros in a Microsoft Office product, be very certain that this is a legitimate use of macros and not malware.
4. Make sure that your important files related to Andrews University business are stored on ITS supported network drives or that you have some other method of keeping a backup that is stored offline from your computer. The ITS network drives have backups taken once each day from which files can be recovered.
5. If you suspect that you have this virus, immediately turn off your computer and contact your PC Support Specialist or the ITS Helpdesk (helpdesk@andrews.edu; ext. 6016). The quicker these are caught, the less damage is done to the local computer and to any network or shared drives accessible to it.

If you have any questions about this issue, please contact our ITS Helpdesk.