Taking a proactive approach to security can help reduce the risk of a ransomware incident. Businesses of all sizes should implement, enforce and regularly test the following preventative measures:
 
Credential hygiene: Practicing good credential hygiene can help prevent brute force attacks, mitigate the effects of credential theft and reduce the risk of unauthorized network access.

Principle of least privilege: All organizations should adhere to the principle of least privilege, a security concept in which users, programs and processes are given only the bare minimum privileges necessary to perform their tasks.

Employee training: Because ransomware frequently spreads through user-initiated actions, companies should provide regular cybersecurity training with an emphasis on phishing, malicious email attachments and other social engineering tactics.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA): MFA should be made mandatory wherever possible to reduce the risk of unauthorized access.

Review Active Directory: Organizations should regularly review the Active Directory (AD) to locate and close existing backdoors such as compromised service accounts, which often have administrative privileges and are a popular target for attackers who wish to obtain credentials.

Network segregation: Effective network segregation is crucial for containing incidents and minimizing disruption to the wider business.

Secure remote access: As RDP is an extremely popular attack vector, organizations must take steps to secure remote access (or disable it if it is not required). Remote access should only be available via certain networks or MFA-enabled VPN, and limited only to users who require it for their work.

Avoid BYOD: Implementing and strictly enforcing security protocols on employees’ personal devices is extremely challenging. Ideally, companies should provide dedicated devices and hardware and discourage employees from using personal devices for work-related tasks.

PowerShell: PowerShell is one of the most common tools used by ransomware gangs to move laterally within a target network and should be uninstalled if possible. If PowerShell is required, it must be very closely monitored via endpoint detection and response systems. Administrators should be aware of every single PowerShell script that is running on their endpoints.

Cybersecurity insurance: Organizations should consider cybersecurity insurance to help mitigate the impact of a ransomware incident. Cybersecurity insurance can be particularly beneficial for MSPs, which are often responsible for protecting other companies’ data. Some cyber insurance companies lean toward readily paying ransoms, while others prefer to explore other remediation options, so companies should talk to prospective insurers and discuss policies before committing to an insurance provider.

Incident response procedures should be tested regularly to ensure that employees are familiar with security processes and understand exactly what to do in the event of an infection. Testing also helps companies identify and rectify flaws in the response chain. The worst time for a company to try and work out what to do in a ransomware attack is during a real ransomware attack.
 
Conclusion
A proactive approach to ransomware prevention can help companies significantly reduce the risk of infection. In the event of an incident, organizations must have effective response procedures in place to contain the incident, prevent data loss and safely initiate the recovery process.
 
The practices described in this article can help businesses of all sizes mitigate the impact of a ransomware attack. Do note, however, that these procedures should be considered general and non-comprehensive advice. Security requirements can vary significantly and security systems should always be tailored according to industry, regulatory requirements and the company’s unique security needs.

Office for Mac supports the three most recent versions of Apple's macOS. With the release of macOS 10.15 Catalina, Microsoft 365 for Mac and Office 2019 for Mac support macOS 10.15, 10.14, and 10.13
 
Microsoft 365, Office 2019 for Mac:
As of the November 2020 (build 16.43) update for Microsoft 365 for Mac or Office 2019 for Mac, macOS 10.14 Mojave or later is required to receive updates to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. If you continue with an older version of macOS, your Office apps will still work, but you'll no longer receive any updates including security updates.
 
Upgrading your operating system to macOS 10.14 or later will allow Office updates to be delivered for your apps. Note that new installs of Microsoft 365 for Mac or Office 2019 for Mac will also require macOS 10.14 or later.
 
Microsoft 365, Office 2016 for Mac:
Support for Office 2016 for Mac will end on October 13, 2020. All your Office 2016 apps will continue to function—they won't disappear from your Mac, nor will you lose any data. Learn what Office 2016 for Mac end of support means for you
 
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote will install and run on OS X 10.10 Yosemite and later.
 
For the best experience with 10.15 Catalina, be sure to keep your Office apps up-to-date. If the version of Office installed on your Mac is earlier than 16.16, and you are not being offered updates, you can download the latest Office for Mac suite installer. See What version of Office am I using?.

Incorrectly handling a ransomware incident can hinder recovery efforts, jeopardize data and result in victims paying ransoms unnecessarily. In the wake of a ransomware attack, organizations should avoid the following mistakes:

1. Do NOT restart impacted devices.
Organizations should avoid restarting devices that have been impacted by ransomware. Many ransomware strains will detect attempts to reboot and penalize victims by corrupting the device’s Windows installation so that the system will never boot up again, while others may begin to delete encrypted files at random. The infamous Jigsaw ransomware, which was prolific in 2016, randomly deleted 1,000 encrypted files each time an infected device was rebooted.
Restarting the system can also hinder forensics efforts. Rebooting clears the machine’s memory which, as noted earlier, may contain clues that can be useful for investigators. Instead, impacted systems should be put into hibernation, which writes all data in memory to a reference file on the device’s hard disk, which can then be used for future analysis.

2. Do NOT connect external storage devices to infected systems.
Many ransomware families intentionally target storage devices and backup systems. As such, external storage devices and backup systems must not be connected (physically or via network access) to infected systems until organizations are fully confident that the infection has been removed.
It is not always obvious that ransomware is running. Sadly, there have been many cases of businesses commencing the recovery process without realizing that ransomware is still present on their system, resulting in ransomware encrypting their backup systems and storage devices.

3. Do NOT pay the ransom immediately.
While the prospect of downtime and potential reputational loss can be daunting, organizations should not immediately pay the ransom. There are always other options, and these should be explored in full before resorting to paying the ransom.

4. Do NOT communicate on the impacted network.
During recovery, victims should assume that attackers still have access to the compromised network and therefore may be able to intercept any communications that are sent and received over the network. Organizations should establish secure out-of-band communication channels and prohibit users from communicating on the compromised network until remediation is complete and the network is clear of intruders.

5. Do NOT delete files.
Files should not be deleted from encrypted systems unless a ransomware recovery specialist has advised to do so. Not only are encrypted files useful for forensics, but some ransomware families store encryption keys within the encrypted files – if the files are deleted, the decryptor won’t work.
Similarly, ransom notes should never be deleted. Some ransomware families, such as DoppelPaymer and BitPaymer, create a ransom note for every file they encrypt, which contains the encoded and encrypted key necessary for decryption. If a ransom note is deleted, its corresponding file cannot be decrypted.

6. Do NOT trust ransomware authors.
Despite increasingly trying to adopt a facade of professionalism, ransomware authors are criminals who are not obligated to uphold any agreements or abide by any code of ethics. Organizations should not believe any information provided by ransomware groups, including information in the ransom note (such as the ransomware strain) nor trust that paying the ransom will lead to the recovery of encrypted data.

Victims should be mindful that attackers may not provide a decryptor after payment, and that attacker-provided decryption tools may be faulty and/or potentially damage encrypted data.

So you don't have a plan or system in place for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, that's a shame because you could avoid reading this guide all together if you did.

In the event of a ransomware attack, an effective response plan can mean the difference between panic and decisive action. It can mean the difference between a company-wide infection and a contained incident; the difference between swift remediation and permanent business closure.

In this guide, we’re going to discuss in detail exactly how businesses should respond to a ransomware attack and explore preventative measures that can help reduce the risk of infection.
How to respond to a ransomware attack. If preventative measures fail, organizations should take the following steps immediately after identifying a ransomware infection.

1. Isolate affected systems.
Isolation should be considered top priority. The vast majority of ransomware will scan the target network, encrypt files stored on network shares and try to propagate laterally to other systems. To contain the infection and prevent the ransomware from spreading, infected systems must be removed from the network as soon as possible.

2. Secure backups
While backups play a crucial role in remediation, it’s important to remember that they are not immune to ransomware. To thwart recovery efforts, many modern ransomware strains will specifically target a company’s backups and try to encrypt, override or delete them.
In the event of a ransomware incident, organizations must secure their backups by disconnecting backup storage from the network or locking down access to backup systems until the infection is resolved.

3. Disable maintenance tasks
Organizations should immediately disable automated maintenance tasks such as temporary file removal and log rotation on affected systems, as these tasks can interfere with files that may be useful for investigators and forensics teams.
For example, file logs may contain valuable clues regarding the initial point of infection, while some poorly programmed ransomware variants may store important information (such as encryption keys) inside temporary files.

4. Create backups of the infected systems
Organizations should create backups or images of the infected systems after isolating them from the network. There are two main reasons for doing so:
Prevent data loss. Some ransomware decryptors contain bugs that can damage data. For instance, the decryptor of a prolific ransomware family known as Ryuk was known to truncate files, effectively cutting off one byte of each file during the decryption process. While this didn’t cause major issues for some file formats, other file types – like virtual hard disk files formats such as VHD/VHDX as well as a lot of Oracle and MySQL database files – store important information in the last byte and were at risk of being corrupted after decryption.
Having a backup of infected systems ensures data integrity. If something goes wrong during the decryption process, victims can roll back their systems and try to repeat the decryption, or contact a ransomware recovery specialist for a reliable, custom-built decryption solution.
Free decryption may be possible in the future If the encrypted data is not critical to an organization’s operations and does not need to be urgently recovered, it should be backed up and stored securely as there’s a chance that it may be able to be decrypted in the future.
There have been instances of law enforcement agencies apprehending ransomware authors and C&C servers being found, which resulted in the release of decryption keys and allowed victims to recover their data for free. In addition, a number of ransomware groups – including Shade, TeslaCrypt and CrySis, among others – have willingly released decryption keys after shutting down their operations.

5. Quarantine the malware
Victims should never outright remove, delete, reformat or reimage infected systems unless specifically instructed to by a ransomware recovery specialist. Instead, the malware should be quarantined, which allows investigators to analyze the infection and identify the exact strain of ransomware responsible for encrypting files. Removing the entire infection makes it extremely difficult for recovery teams to find the specific ransomware sample involved in the attack.
If the malware is still running, memory dumps should be made prior to quarantine to create a full record of any malicious processes that are running. The memory dump may contain the key material that was used to encrypt the files, which can potentially be extracted and used to help victims decrypt files without paying the ransom.

6. Identify and investigate patient zero
Identifying patient zero (i.e. the source of the infection) is crucial for understanding how attackers gained access to the system, what other actions they took while they were on the network and the extent of the infection. Detecting the source of the infection is useful for not only resolving the current incident, but can also help organizations address vulnerabilities and reduce the risk of future compromise.
It can be challenging to identify the original point of compromise because, in many cases, the threat actors will have been on the system for weeks or even months before deploying the ransomware payload. Companies that lack the resources or expertise to perform thorough digital forensics should consider enlisting the services of a professional forensics company.

7. Identify the ransomware strain
Organizations can use free services such as Emsisoft’s online ransomware identification tool or ID Ransomware to determine which strain of ransomware they have been impacted by.
These tools allow users to upload a ransom note, a sample encrypted file and the attacker’s contact information, and analyze the data to identify which ransomware strain has impacted the user’s files. It also directs the user to a free decryption tool if one is available.

8. Decide whether to pay the ransom
If backups are damaged and there is no free decryption tool available, organizations may be tempted to pay the ransom in order to recover their files.
While paying the ransom can help reduce disruption and may be cheaper than the overall cost of downtime, it is not a decision that should be taken lightly. Organizations should only consider paying the ransom if all other options have been exhausted and the loss of data will likely result in the company going out of business.
The following factors should be considered:

• There is a 1 in 20 chance that the ransomware authors will take the money but not provide a decryptor. Generally speaking, larger, more “professional” ransomware gangs are more likely to provide a working decryptor than variants that are typically sold to and run by individuals, such as Dharma and Phobos. Regardless of who is behind the attack, victims have to rely on criminals to provide a decryptor with no guarantee that they’ll hold up their end of the bargain.
• The attacker-provided decryptor may not work properly.
• Ransom payments may be used to fund serious criminal activity, including human trafficking and terrorism.
• Paying the ransom substantiates the ransomware business model and perpetuates further attacks.

​
With the help of ​Emsisoft.

Apart from some slightly clumsy wording (but when was the last time you received an email about a technical matter that was plainly written in perfect English?) and a tiny error of grammar, we thought it was surprisingly believable and worth writing up on that account, to remind you how modern phishers are presenting themselves.

Yes, you ought to be suspicious of emails like this. No, you shouldn’t click through even out of interest. No, should never enter your email password in circumstances like this.
But the low-key style of this particular scam caught our eye, making it the sort of message that even a well-informed user might fall for, especially at the end of a busy day, or at the very start of the day after.
​
Here’s how it arrives – note that in the sample we examined here, the crooks had rigged up the email content so that it seemed to be an automated message from the recipient’s own account, which fits with the theme of an automatic delivery error:

​Only if you were to dig into the email headers would it be obvious that this message actually arrived from outside and was not generated automatically by your own email system at all.
The clickable link is perfectly believable, because the part we’ve redacted above (between the text https://portal and the trailing /owa, short for Outlook Web App) will be your company’s own domain name.

But even though the blue text of the link itself looks like a URL, it isn’t actually the URL that you will visit if you click it.
Remember that a link in a web page consists of two parts: first, the text that is highlighted, usually in blue, which is clickable; second, the destination, or HREF (short for hypertext reference), where you actually go if you click the blue text.
​
A link is denoted in HTML by an ANCHOR tag that appears between the markers <A> and </A> while the destination web address is denoted by an HREF attribute inside the opening anchor tag delimiter.
Like this:

Why not just block links that look deceptive?
If you’re thinking that “links that deliberately look as though they go somewhere else” sound suspicious, you’d be right.

You might wonder why browsers, operating systems and cybersecurity products don’t automatically detect and block this kind of trick, where there’s an obvious and deliberate mismatch between the clickable text and the link it takes you to.

Unfortunately, even mainstream sites use this approach, making it effectively impossible to rely up front on what a link looks like, or even where it claims to go in your browser, in order to work out exactly where your network traffic will go next.
​
For instance, here’s a Google search for here's an example:

You can see that if you ① search for here's an example, you’ll receive a answer in which ② an explicit domain name (in this case, english.stackexchange.com) is used as the visible text of a clickable link.
You can also see that when you hover over the domain name link, you’ll see ③ a full URL that apparently confirms that clicking the link will take you to the named site.
​​However, if you use Firefox’s Copy Link Location option to recover the ultimate link, you’ll see – thanks to the magic of JavaScript – that your web request actually goes to a URL of this sort:

Eventually, you will end up at the URL shown at position ③ in the screenshot above, but you’ll be redirected (quickly enough that you might not notice) via a Google track-and-redirect link first.
So you do end up where the browser told you, but not quite as explicitly and directly as you might have expected – you get there indirectly via Google’s own advertising network.

What happens next?
The good news is that in the case of this phish you will see the actual web page you’ll be taken to if you hover your cursor over the link-that-looks-like-a-different-link.
That’s because email clients and webmail systems generally don’t allow JavaScript to run, given that emails could have come from anywhere – even if they say they came from your own account, as this one does.

So you ought to spot this phish easily if you stop to check where the link-that-looks-internal really ends up.
In our case (note that the exact URL and server name may vary every time), the real link did not go to https://portal.[REDACTED]/owa, as suggested by the text of the link.
Instead, it went to a temporary Microsoft Azure cloud web storage URL, as shown below, which clearly isn’t the innocent-looking URL implied in the email:

The phishing page
If you do click through, and your endpoint or firewall filter doesn’t block the request, you will see a phishing page that we must grudgingly admit is elegantly simple:
​​

Your email address is embedded in the link in the email that you click on, so the phishing page can fill in the email field as you would probably expect.
When we tried this page, deliberately putting in fake data, we received an error message after the first attempt, as though we’d made a mistake typing in the password:

No matter what we did the second time, we achieved “success”, and moved onwards in the scam.

How it ends
One tricky problem for phishing crooks is what to do at the end, so you don't belatedly realise it's a scam and rush off to change your password (or cancel your credit card, or whatever it might be).
In theory, they could try using the credentials you just typed in to login for you and then dump you into your real account, but there's a lot that could go wrong.
The crooks almost certainly will test out your newly-phished password pretty soon, but probably not right away while you are paying attention and might spot any anomalies that their attempted login might cause.
​
They could just put up a "thanks, you may now continue normally" page, and often that's exactly what they do as a simple way to sign off their scam.
Or they find a page that's related to the account they were phishing for, and redirect you there.
This leaves you on a web page that really does have a genuine URL in the address bar – what's often called a decoy page because it leads you out at the end of the scam with your innocence intact.
That’s what happened here – it’s not perhaps exactly the page you might expect, but it’s believable enough because it leaves you on a genuine Outlook-related web page with a genuine Microsoft URL:

Thanks:
Paul Ducklin, Sophos.

Gone are the days when the internet felt novel: AOL Instant messenger opened up a new way of communicating; Google searches yielded new info at mindblowingly quick speeds; a shared computer in a common space was the norm. We lived and learned through our amateur mistakes—getting hacked, fallings for phishing scams, using our first names and birthdays as passwords.

For younger generations who’ve grown up with technology and social media, the internet has always been ubiquitous. They carry it in their pockets, and use it to stay chronically connected to friends and to navigate everyday life and learning. Is security at the forefront of their minds, or is it something they take for granted? Essentially, are they doomed to repeat our mistakes?

Now that many schools are operating virtually, it’s the perfect time to evaluate your kids’ understanding and awareness of digital privacy, and brush up on your own knowledge so that you can be a good guide. Here are CompuBC's tips for encouraging good cybersecurity habits in kids.

Instill confidence, not fear
The internet can be murky, but we can’t expect kids to avoid it. Rather than talking about the internet like it’s the boogeyman, arm your kids with the knowledge they need to navigate safely:

Passwords
Just like you’d stress the importance of keeping an ATM Pin secure, remind them that login info and passwords are for their eyes only. Teach good password creation habits.

Downloads
Make sure they check with you before downloading apps (you can also set parental controls  on an iPhone or Apple Device to prevent downloads and purchases from the App Store). For Android, Google offers a Family Link app that allows you to pair your device with your kids’, manage their app downloads, and set limits on screen time.

Websites and WiFi
Teach them how to identify a secure WiFi network. The simplest rule: if you click on a network and it asks for either a WPA or WPA2 password, you know it’s secure. Both types of passwords are keys for accessing a secured Wifi network; the latter is a more recent version that uses AES (advanced encryption standard) encryption for maximum security. They’ll also want to make sure that websites start with “https” (the ‘s’ here means secure). Limit their access to specific web content using parental controls, which you can set up on their Apple and Android devices.

Preach Healthy Skepticism
A year-long Stanford study concluded that most school-age children have a hard time differentiating between articles and sponsored content, and possess a general lack of skepticism when it comes to what they read online. Advertisers and content creators are adept at getting users to click and explore ads, apps, games, and articles—just think how likely you are to let curiosity get the best of you when presented with targeted ads. It’s important to encourage kids to think critically about the information they’re presented with online, and to be critical thinkers when navigating the internet.

Teach kids about the permanence of shared info online
A good golden rule: if you can’t share it with your parents, it’s probably not something you want to put online. There’s certainly a tendency to overshare on social media, and the consequences can range from sheer regret to jeopardizing kids’ safety. Remind your kids that what they put online, even in private channels, stays online, and can be found if someone really wants to find it. Depending on their age, it’s a good idea to monitor their social media accounts, and tell them to keep their accounts private and avoid friending anyone they don’t know in real life. Schedule a check-in with them and scope out their requests and DMs to rid them of bots and scammers.

Don’t go it alone—use schools and other learning tools as resources
Many schools have their own policies when it comes to using personal devices at school. Talk to your child’s school to find out their rules, and to see if they teach students “digital literacy”—seeing media through a critical lens. Resources like Common Sense offer courses for empowering students in their digital lives, helping them become more adept at navigating the internet.

Practice what you preach
Familiarize yourself with good cybersecurity habits, from understanding the trail you leave online to quickly improving your online security. Be a resource should they come to you for advice. Set good examples when using your devices, such as not texting while you drive, and being mindful of your own screen time, as kids are likely to pick up on these habits. Likewise, underscore the importance of keeping track of your devices and making sure they are password-protected.

Every week or so, news of yet another company’s data breach breaks. Often, the news stories will include a list of what data was or wasn’t compromised: emails, credit card numbers, addresses, etc. 

So, you might assume that if a news story doesn’t include “passwords” on the list of compromised data after a breach, there’s no rush to go reset yours.
But actually, resetting your password for any compromised account, regardless of whether that password was exposed, is exactly what you should do.

Why you should update your password for any compromised account

Even though 91% of people know that reusing passwords across accounts is bad, 59% of people still reuse their passwords—even between personal and work accounts.
There’s a chance the password you’re using on a compromised account is also being used elsewhere. And if someone already has your email address or other personal information from one breach, and then gets your reused password through another, they can put two and two together to hack your accounts.
It’s also possible that the breadth or depth of a breach may not be apparent or reported until months later, so passwords may indeed have been involved. Why take the risk?

The bottom line: No matter the extent of a company’s data breach, you should go change that password ASAP.

Here are a few more tips for creating strong passwords, and other smart password practices

1. Store passwords securely. Use a good and encrypted password manager APP, you probably know this, but never keep a list of passwords in plain text, like in a Word doc or Google doc. This applies to physical lists, too, especially in public places like an office. Keeping your passwords--in a password manager APP means they’re protected by the strongest encryption, and everything is accessible to only you.
2. Make them unique and strong. The strongest passwords are strings of random characters because they’re the hardest to crack with simple brute force or dictionary attacks. That’s why a Password Generator creates passwords that looks like a cat walked on your keyboard.
3. Turn on 2FA. For your most important accounts, like banking and email, use two-factor authentication (2FA). 2FA adds an additional layer of protection by requiring a second verification that you are who you say you are when you log in—usually via a code sent to your phone or email or better yet a prompt on your phone or a 2FA APP. When 2FA is enabled, even if someone gets ahold of your password, they still won’t be able to access your account unless they also have one of your devices. Check out Duo or Google Authenticator for 2FA options.

The tips above might seem like a lot if you try to do them all at once. Instead, pick at least one per week to implement in your digital life, and you’ll be more secure online right away!

Questions regarding the use of "anti-virus" or similarly categorized "Internet security" products frequently arise on this site. Many of them are from new Mac users whose previous computer experience was limited to traditionally virus-prone Windows PCs. Early Microsoft Windows versions were notoriously vulnerable to unauthorized modifications and malicious interference, which gave rise to a cottage industry of "anti-virus" software companies responding to a need for the operating system security Microsoft neglected to provide.


Apple and Microsoft's respective operating systems were originally conceived and developed completely separately, for use with completely different hardware, and their evolution has only diverged since their inception. In recent years Microsoft has made great strides in protecting its Windows operating system, but owing to macOS's original concept as a multi-user, multitasking operating system incorporating a fundamental requirement to keep users separate from one another, it was never as vulnerable to begin with. With each new release, macOS has only grown more secure from unauthorized tampering.


It's important to understand the nature of threats that exist today, and to appreciate the fact that "anti-virus" software peddlers have been reduced to abject panic as their traditional Windows PC market suffers its inevitable decline. The cottage industry described in the first paragraph has since grown to a multi-billion dollar behemoth with entrenched interests—an enormous beast that demands to be fed. The PC market's demise has led to a predictable response from them and shills who represent their interests, asserting that since Macs are rapidly growing in popularity, they have become just as vulnerable to "viruses" as PCs, implying an even greater need for the products they sell. It just isn't so.


What is true is that the growing base of Mac users are being increasingly targeted and exploited for scams that seek to defraud them of their hard-earned money. Criminals who seek to do that cannot succeed without your help. Don't give them the satisfaction.


The following describes simple principles that will serve to protect your Mac, and yourself, from the various threats that exist today. It's long, but if you read nothing else, read the first three numbered points and the Summary at the end. They are equally applicable to Macs, PCs, mobile devices or anything else that uses software to communicate with the world beyond it.

There will always be threats to your information security associated with using any Internet - connected communications tool:

1. You can mitigate those threats by following commonsense practices
2. Delegating that responsibility to software is an ineffective defense
3. Assuming that any product will protect you from those threats is a hazardous attitude that is likely to result in neglecting point #1 above.

macOS already includes everything it needs to protect itself from viruses and malware. Keep it that way with software updates from Apple.

Rather than asking which non-Apple "anti-virus" or "Internet security" product is best, a much better question is "how should I protect my Mac":

• Never install any product that claims to "clean up", "speed up", "optimize", "boost" or "accelerate" your Mac; to "wash" it, "tune" it, or to make it "shiny". Those claims are absurd.
  • Such products are very aggressively marketed. They are all scams.
  • They generally operate on the flawed premise that a Mac accumulates "junk" that needs to be routinely "cleaned out" for optimum performance.
  • Trial versions of those programs are successful because they provide the instant gratification of greater free disk space.
  • That increased space is the result of irreversible destruction of files, programs, or operating system components normally protected from inadvertent alteration or deletion. The eventual result will be unreliable operation, poor performance and random crashes that may not become evident for months or even years after their use, when updates to programs or macOS are eventually released.
  • Memory "cleaners" that circumvent macOS's memory management algorithms work by purging inactive memory contents to mass storage, which can only result in degraded performance and accelerated hardware failure.
• Never install pirated or "cracked" software, software obtained from dubious websites, or other questionable sources.
  • Illegally obtained software is almost certain to contain malware.
  • "Questionable sources" include but are not limited to spontaneously appearing web pages or popups, download hosting sites such as C net dot com, Softonic dot com, Software dot com, Soft Pedia dot com, Download dot com, Mac Update dot com, or any other site whose revenue is primarily derived from junk product advertisements.
  • If you need to install software that isn't available from the Mac App Store, obtain it only from legitimate sources authorized by the software's developer.
  • macOS helps prevent you from inadvertently installing software that may be malicious or untrustworthy. If macOS warns you about that, pay attention. It's important.
• Don't supply your password in response to a popup window requesting it, unless you know what it is and the reason your credentials are required:
  • Your Apple ID and its password are the keys to your digital kingdom. Safeguard both of them just as you would your wallet or purse.
• Don't open email attachments from email addresses that you do not recognize, or click links contained in an email:
  • Most of these are scams that direct you to fraudulent sites that attempt to convince you to disclose personal information.
  • Such "phishing" attempts are the 21st century equivalent of a social exploit that has existed since the dawn of civilization. Don’t fall for it.
  • Apple will never ask you to reveal personal information in an email. If you receive an unexpected email from Apple threatening to close your account unless you take immediate action, just ignore it. If your iCloud, iTunes, or App Store account becomes disabled for valid reasons, you will know when you try to buy something or log in to this support site, and are unable to.
  • A variant of the same scam takes the form of an emailed receipt for an iTunes Store or App Store purchase you did not make. The email will contain a link soliciting your Apple ID to confirm the alleged purchase. Both the link and the receipt are fraudulent.
• Don't install browser extensions unless you understand their purpose:
  • Go to the Safari menu > Preferences... > Extensions. If you see any Extensions that you do not recognize or understand, simply click the Uninstall button and they will be gone.
  • No Safari Extensions are required for normal operation.
• Don't install any Profiles unless your Mac is owned or controlled by your employer, school, or similar institution:
  • Profiles are commonly installed by institutions to ensure their Macs conform to their requirements.
  • To determine if a Profile is installed on your Mac, open  (Apple menu) > System Preferences... > General.
  • If you see Profile pane and you have no explanation for its presence, you may have been deceived into installing it. Remove it by selecting it and clicking the [—] (minus) button.
• Don't install Java or Flash unless you are certain that you need it:
  • Java, a non-Apple product, remains a potential vector for malware. If you are required to use Java, be mindful of that possibility.
  • Java can be disabled in System Preferences.
  • Despite its name JavaScript is unrelated to Java. No malware can infect your Mac through JavaScript. It's OK to leave it enabled.
  • The same precaution applies to Adobe Flash Player. Newly discovered Flash vulnerabilities occur almost weekly.
  • Flash Player's demise is as imminent as it is deserved. You can help accelerate that inevitable fate by not using it.
• Don't rely upon Internet search engines to obtain technical support assistance:
  • Scam artists pay popular Internet search companies in exchange for greater prominence in search results, so their websites and contact information are given precedence over the legitimate companies they fraudulently claim to represent.
  • The overwhelming majority of web search results seeking instructions to remove unwanted software (for example) are just advertisements for even more unwanted software. Their "instructions" are designed to be difficult to follow, won't work, will make things worse, or all the above.
  • If you require technical support, determine the company's legitimate contact information from their own website or product literature, and initiate contact with them directly.
  • Support for all Apple products is obtained by using the Contact Support link at the top of this web page.
  • If you receive an unsolicited phone call from someone attempting to convince you a problem exists with your Mac, PC, or mobile device, it's a scam. Hang up.
  • Legitimate organizations such as Apple and Microsoft do not initiate contact in that manner.
• Beware spontaneously appearing, unsolicited popups demanding immediate action. Think before you click.
  • Popup windows are useful and required for some websites, but unsolicited popups are commonly used to deceive people into installing unwanted software they would never intentionally install.
  • Ad-blocking Safari Extensions can help, but none are completely effective, and all of them can cause unexpected behavior.
  • If you encounter a website, text message, email, or phone call alleging your Mac is infested with some ick or that you need to take immediate action lest dire circumstances ensue, it is 100% fraudulent. Ignore it. Read Avoid phishing emails, fake 'virus' alerts, phony support calls, and other scams.
  • If you find Safari has frozen or "locked up", leaving you unable to dismiss the page, read Phony "tech support" / "ransomware" popups and web pages for the solution.
  • Any spontaneously appearing dialog insisting that you upgrade your video player right this instant should be summarily ignored. Such popups are commonly associated with sites that promise to deliver "free" movies, music, or other copyrighted content that is not normally "free", but no website that hosts interest-based targeted advertising is completely immune from that threat.
• Ignore hyperventilating popular media outlets that thrive by promoting fear and discord with entertainment products arrogantly presented as "news". Learn what real threats actually exist and how to arm yourself against them:
  • The most serious threat to your data security is phishing. Most of these attempts are pathetic and are easily recognized, but that hasn't stopped prominent public figures from recently succumbing to this age-old scam.
  • macOS viruses do not exist, but intentionally malicious or poorly written code, created by either nefarious or inept individuals, is nothing new.
  • Never install something without first knowing what it is, what it does, how it works, and how to get rid of it when you don't want it any more.
  • If you elect to use "anti-virus" software, familiarize yourself with its limitations and potential to cause adverse effects, and apply the principle immediately preceding this one.
  • Most such utilities will only burden your Mac while they look for viruses that do not exist. They will degrade its performance and prevent it from working properly while conveying no benefit whatsoever—other than to make you "feel good" about security, when you should actually be exercising sound judgment, derived from accurate knowledge, based on verifiable facts.
• Do install updates from Apple as they become available. No one knows more about Macs and how to protect them than the company that builds them.

Summary: Use common sense and caution when you use your Mac, just like you would in any social context. There is no product, utility, or magic talisman that can protect you from all the evils of mankind.

Businesses across the world have been targeted by a new cyber scam that impersonates Google Chrome update download pages.

Researchers at Proofpoint identified the malware campaign targeting organizations in Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with thousands of messages sent around the world over the course of just a few weeks.
The messages told the victims they needed to upgrade to the latest version of the Google Chrome or Internet Explorer browser, but actually included links to websites compromised with malware.

Google Chrome malware

Proofpoint identified the campaign as being the work of prolific threat actor TA569, also known as SocGholish, as the compromised messages included links websites compromised with SocGholish HTML injects.
These injects are able to analyse the geolocation, operating system, and browser used by the recipient, and if deemed a suitable victim, look to convince them to click on a link in the email message.

Rather than the promised Google Chrome update however, clicking on this link downloads one of several malicious payload. Proofpoint analysis spotted a a banking Trojan (Chthonic) that was a variant of the notorious Zeus banking Trojan, as well as remote-control software (NetSupport) that can give hackers remote access to compromised systems.

The attack targeted a number of major businesses across multiple verticals, including education, state governments, and manufacturing, and numerous others.

​"While this technique isn’t new, it’s still effective because it exploits the intended recipient’s desire to practice good security hygiene," Proofpoint wrote in a blog post outlining the findings. 
"Keeping software updated is a common piece of security advice, and this actor uses that to their advantage. These campaigns illustrate that malware and threat actor tactics don’t have to be novel to find success, even in today’s rapidly changing threat landscape."

If your PC were lost or stolen, you'd probably cringe at the cost of replacing it. But that's nothing compared to what you'd stand to lose if someone had unfettered access to the data on that device. Even if they can't sign in using your Windows user account, a thief could boot from a removable device and browse the contents of the system drive with impunity.
The most effective way to stop that nightmare scenario is to encrypt the entire device so that its contents are only available to you or someone with the recovery key.

BitLocker is the brand name that Microsoft uses for the encryption tools available in business editions of Windows (desktop and server). A limited but still effective subset of BitLocker device encryption features are also available in Windows 10 Home editions. Here's how to make sure your data is protected.

​HOW DOES BITLOCKER WORK IN WINDOWS 10?
​
On all devices that are designed for Windows 10 (see the following section for the hardware requirements), device encryption is automatically enabled. Windows Setup automatically creates the necessary partitions and initializes encryption on the operating system drive with a clear key. To complete the encryption process, you must perform one of the following steps:

• Sign in using a Microsoft account that has administrator rights on the device. That action removes the clear key, uploads a recovery key to the user's OneDrive account, and encrypts the data on the system drive. Note that this process happens automatically and works on any Windows 10 edition.
• Sign in using an Active Directory account on a Windows domain or an Azure Active Directory account. Either configuration requires a business edition of Windows 10 (Pro, Enterprise, or Education), and the recovery key is saved in a location that is available to the domain or AAD administrator.
• If you sign in using a local account on a device running a business edition of Windows 10, you need to use the BitLocker Management tools to enable encryption on available drives.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
The most important hardware feature required to support BitLocker Device Encryption is a Trusted Platform Module chip, or TPM. The device also needs to support the Modern Standby feature (formerly known as InstantGo).
Virtually all devices that were originally manufactured for Windows 10 meet these requirements.

MANAGING BITLOCKER
For the most part, BitLocker is a set-it-and-forget-it feature. After you enable encryption for a drive, it doesn't require any maintenance. You can, however, use tools built into the operating system to perform a variety of management tasks.

The simplest tools are available in the Windows graphical interface, but only if you are running Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise. Open File Explorer, right-click any drive icon, and click Manage BitLocker. That takes you to a page where you can turn BitLocker on or off; if BitLocker is already enabled for the system drive, you can suspend encryption temporarily or back up your recovery key from here. You can also manage encryption on removable drives and on secondary internal drives.

On a system running Windows 10 Home, you'll find an on-ff button under Settings > Update & Recovery > Device Encryption. A warning message will appear if device encryption hasn't been enabled by signing into a Microsoft account.
For a much larger set of tools, open a command prompt and use one of the two built-in BitLocker administrative tools, manage-bde or repair-bde, with one of its available switches. The simplest and most useful of these is manage-bde -status, which displays the encryption status of all available drives. Note that this command works on all editions, including Windows 10 Home.

SAVING AND USING A RECOVERY KEY
​Under normal circumstances, you unlock your drive automatically when you sign in to Windows 10 using an account that's authorized for that device. If you try to access the system in any other way, such as by booting from a Windows 10 Setup drive or a Linux-based USB boot drive, you'll be prompted for a recovery key to access the current drive. You might also see a prompt for a recovery key if a firmware update has changed the system in a way that the TPM doesn't recognize.
As a system administrator in an organization, you can use a recovery key (manually or with the assistance of management software) to access data on any device that is owned by your organization, even if the user is no longer a part of the organization.

The recovery key is a 48-digit number that unlocks the encrypted drive in those circumstances. Without that key, the data on the drive remains encrypted. If your goal is to reinstall Windows in preparation for recycling a device, you can skip entering the key and the old data will be completely unreadable after setup is complete.
Your recovery key is stored in the cloud automatically if you enabled device encryption with a Microsoft account. To find the key, go to https://onedrive.com/recoverykey and sign in with the associated Microsoft account. (Note that this option works on a mobile phone.) Expand the listing for any device to see additional details and an option to delete the saved key.

If you enabled BitLocker encryption by joining your Windows 10 device with an Azure AD account, you'll find the recovery key listed under your Azure AD profile. Go to Settings > Accounts > Your Info and click Manage My Account. If you're using a device that's not registered with Azure AD, go to https://account.activedirectory.windowsazure.com/profile and sign in with your Azure AD credentials.
Find the device name under the Devices & Activity heading and click Get BitLocker Keys to view the recovery key for that device. Note that your organization must allow this feature for the information to be available to you.
Finally, on business editions of Windows 10, you can print or save a copy of the recovery key and store the file or printout (or both) in a safe place. Use the management tools available in File Explorer to access these options. Use this option if you enabled device encryption with a Microsoft account and you prefer not to have the recovery key available in OneDrive

BITLOCKER TO GO
​Removable storage devices need encryption too. That includes USB flash drives as well as MicroSD cards that can be used in some PCs. That's where BitLocker To Go works.
To turn on BitLocker encryption for a removable drive, you must be running a business edition of Windows 10. You can unlock that device on a device running any edition, including Windows 10 Home.
As part of the encryption process, you need to set a password that will be used to unlock the drive. You also need to save the recovery key for the drive. (It's not automatically saved to a cloud account.)

Finally, you need to choose an encryption mode. Use the New Encryption Mode (XTS-AES) option if you plan to use the device exclusively on Windows 10. Choose Compatible Mode for a drive you might want to open on a device running an earlier version of Windows.
The next time you insert that device into a Windows PC, you'll be prompted for the password. Click More Options and select the checkbox to automatically unlock the device if you want easy access to its data on a trusted device that you control.

​That option is especially useful if you're using a MicroSD card for expanded storage capacity on a device such as a Surface Pro. After you sign in, all of your data is immediately available. If you lose the removable drive or it is stolen, its data is inaccessible to the thief.