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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">In this issue:</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">1. Fake MIT Emails Become More Sophisticated</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">2. Malware Identified from Attack on Sony</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">3. A Strong Argument for Backing Up and Virus Protection</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">1. Fake MIT Emails Become More Sophisticated<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Cyber criminals are getting more savvy with their attempts to scam potential victims using phishing emails. </div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">It’s likely that once a company or organization has fallen for several scams in the form of phishing emails, the criminals sending them may realize that after time, the targeted organization has learned
from previous attacks. The organization becomes harder to fool, so the same group of criminals will attempt more sophisticated attacks on the organization. They step up their efforts by using language and information in their phishing emails that makes their
emails harder to spot as being bogus.</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Learn how to spot these bogus emails. There are examples in The Knowledge Base (<a href="http://kb.mit.edu" class="">kb.mit.edu</a>) of these more sophisticated — as well as obvious — phishing attempts,
all using fake MIT information to scam recipients:</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><a href="http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/x/VxhB" class="">Examples of phishing emails that appear to come from MIT</a>.</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">2. Malware Identified from Attack on Sony</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><a href="https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA14-353A" class="">US-CERT has released an advisory</a> regarding the sophisticated malware that the attackers of Sony Pictures used. According to the advisory,
the attackers used a Server Message Block (SMB) Worm Tool to disrupt the company’s infrastructure. The tool is equipped with five components, including a listening plant, a lightweight backdoor, a proxy tool, a destructive hard drive tool and a destructive
target cleaning tool.</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><a href="http://www.securityweek.com/hackers-used-sophisticated-smb-worm-tool-attack-sony" class="">According a Securityweek article:</a> “The SMB worm propagates through an infected network via brute-force
authentication attacks, and connects to a command and control (C2) infrastructure with servers located in Thailand, Poland, Italy, Bolivia, Singapore and the United States.”</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">An organization infected with this malware could experience operational impacts, including loss of intellectual property and disruption of critical systems.</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Users and administrators are recommended to take preventative measures, such as using and maintaining anti-virus software, keeping software up to date, reviewing security tips for
<a href="https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/tips/ST13-003" class="">handling destructive malware</a> and reviewing practices for control systems with defense-in-depth strategies.</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">3. A Strong Argument for Backing Up and Virus Protection</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">A recent article in the NY Times,
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/opinion/sunday/how-my-mom-got-hacked.html?_r=0" class="">
“How My Mom Got Hacked,”</a> tells the nightmare story of how a woman had 5,726 files locked by the CryptoWall attackers. </div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">CryptoWall is the updated version of
<a href="http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/x/IC4YCQ" class="">CryptoLocker Ransomware</a>. The modus operandi of the CryptoWall attackers is to install malware on your machine that locks your files or hard drive using encryption which only they can unlock. To get
your files back, they demand a ransom. To pay the ransom, you have to purchase Bitcoins.</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">If you find yourself in this situation, unless you have information in your files that is deeply personal and if exposed would be embarrassing, or cause harm to others, the recommendation by the FBI
is to not pay the extortionists. </div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">It’s easier to do this if you don’t need the files back and have made backups. So back up your files often using an external drive or a cloud backup service.
<a href="http://ist.mit.edu/backup" class="">MIT offers CrashPlan</a> for students, faculty and staff.</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Using anti-virus software and keeping your operating system and software up to date will protect you from getting infected with CryptoWall-type malware.
<a href="http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/x/GwXn" class="">Learn more about virus protection at MIT</a>.</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">=======================================================================================</div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Read all archived Security FYI Newsletter articles and submit comments online at
<a href="http://securityfyi.wordpress.com/" class=""><span style="color: rgb(4, 46, 238);" class="">http://securityfyi.wordpress.com/</span></a>.</div>
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<br class="">
Monique Buchanan<br class="">
IT Security Communications Coordinator<br class="">
Information Systems & Technology (IS&T)<br class="">
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br class="">
<a href="http://ist.mit.edu/secure" class="">http://ist.mit.edu/secure</a><br class="">
tel: 617.253.2715</div>
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