spam email Archives

Out-of-Office Auto-Replies: A Major Threat to Security

Best Practices, cyber attacks, Cyber Security, Data Security, Ophtek, out-of-office, Safety, Security, spam emailemail, Ophtek, out-of-office, security, vulnerabilityOphtek, LLC

Sep 2019

If you’ve worked away from the office then it’s likely you’ve set an out-of-office auto-reply on your emails. However, this could be very dangerous.

The problem with most out-of-office auto-replies is that they’re usually teeming with sensitive data. And this is data that anyone can harvest simply by sending you an email. There’s no filter on who receives the auto-reply. It’s sent to everyone. And this opens you up to a whole world of danger.

Let’s take a closer look at what these dangers are and how you can avoid them.

The Dangers of Auto-Reply Emails

The type of out-of-office auto-reply email you’re likely to have sent in the past looks like this:

I will be out of the office during the week of October 21 – 27 at the Networking Conference in Houston, Texas. During this time please contact my assistant Ralph Smith on 555-2820 with any service-related issues. If you need to reach me directly then please call me on my cell at 555-1234 and leave a message

Peter Jones – Service Manager – Plant Manufacturing – Jones.Peter@plantmanf.com

This is an informative auto-reply and one that will help anyone that has a genuine interest in working with your business. But it also provides far too much information. It could compromise your safety and also the security of your organization. Social engineering is a criminal’s best friend and, in the above example, you have provided them with several pieces of valuable information:

Availability: It’s not recommended that you reveal where you are and how long you will be there for in an auto-reply. In the example above it advises that Peter will be away from the office and his home for a set amount of time. Criminals, therefore, could plan to rob his home or, even more audaciously, turn up at his office and try to gain access.

Signature: When you’re actively communicating with someone else in business it’s recommended to use a signature block at the end of your emails. This helps to underline who you are in the organization and the various ways you can be contacted. It’s an excellent communication tool, but only when it’s used wisely. You don’t want this information being sent to just anyone, so it’s best to remove this from your out-of-office auto-reply.

Live Email Address: When it comes to email-spam there’s nothing the spammers love more than a confirmation that their spam has landed. And, when you set up an auto-reply, this confirms to any spammer that your email address is live. This information is then logged, automatically by spam bots, and your email address added to further spam lists as a worthy target.

Chain of Command: It’s important to limit the organizational details in your out-of-office auto reply message, so revealing that, for example, Peter’s assistant is Ralph Smith is not a wise move. This not only helps to leak a further individual’s contact details, but it reveals an insight into the chain of command that’s in place. And this could allow a criminal to impersonate Ralph Smith to gain further access to your data.

Final Thoughts

The key to a safer out-of-office auto-reply is to provide minimal specifics when it comes to your excursion. You shouldn’t provide contact details and it’s safer to simply state that you’re unavailable when it comes to your location. By reducing the amount of sensitive data in your auto-reply you should be able to thwart any criminals and any security risks.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

Cryptojacking Malware Rises by 4000% in 2018

cryptocurrency, cryptojacking, Internet of things, IoT Attacks, Ophtek, spam emailcryptojacking, Internet of Things, IoT, spam emailOphtek, LLC

Jan 2019

McAfee have reported that instances of cryptojacking malware have risen by a massive 4000% over the course of 2018 and are now a major security risk.

As the interest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum has soared in the last couple of years, so has the interest in exploiting these opportunities for ill-gains. In particular, hackers have become increasingly fixated on the financial rewards available from mining cryptocurrency. Now, there’s nothing remotely illegal about mining cryptocurrency. In fact, it’s a lucrative business, but it’s also one that requires a significant amount of processing power from multiple PCs. And this is where hackers turn to underhand methods to generate this processing power.

Given this massive rise in cryptojacking activity, it’s likely that your organization will be targeted in the near future and it’s essential that you know what you’re dealing with, so let’s try to get a handle on it.

The Rise of Cryptojacking

The first quarter of 2018 saw cryptojacking activity increasing by 629% according to McAfee and a later report by Kaspersky has suggested that cryptojacking is now, in some countries, a bigger threat than ransomware. And, despite the relatively low processing power, hackers are increasingly targeting Internet of Things (IoT) devices to harness the power required to mine cryptocurrency successfully. You may wonder why IoT devices are being targeted, but the reasons are very simple: low levels of security and high volumes of online devices.

Cryptojacking’s rise in popularity can also be put down to the fact that it’s highly discreet compared to conventional malware and ransomware. Whereas those two forms of hacking will produce very obvious symptoms such as stolen data and encrypted files, cryptojacking malware runs quietly in the background. There will, of course, be a drop in the processing capabilities of an infected PC, but an average PC user will usually put this down to the age of the PC or a server problem. As a result, cryptojacking malware can flourish with little chance of being detected.

How is Cryptojacking Executed?

There are two main ways in which cryptojacking malware is able to execute its malicious payload:

Spam emails that contain a malicious link that, once clicked, download cryptomining software onto the victim’s PC.
Infected websites or ads that automatically install cryptomining software once the victim’s browser loads them up.

Detecting and Avoiding Cryptojacking

The drop in processing power that cryptojacking malware can levy on your organization’s PCs could seriously threaten your productivity. Therefore, it’s vital that you understand the warning signs of cryptojacking and how to protect your organization from such attacks.

The main warning sign of cryptojacking taking place is a drop in your CPU power. Any noticeable slowdown in productivity such as apps struggling to complete basic tasks should be investigated immediately. While it will take an IT professional to identify exactly what’s draining the PCs power, any PC user should be able to identify the slowdown.

When it comes to protecting your organization’s PCs from cryptojacking then you need to adhere to the following:

Good in-house education on the dangers of malicious links contained within emails
Install extensions in browsers that block mining software
Turn off JavaScript as this is frequently used by webpages to install cryptojacking software
Ensure correct security practices relating to IoT devices are followed