“GameOver Zeus” is the latest malware attack that is believed to have infected over 15,000 UK computers and over one million computers worldwide. The malware which is designed to harvest banking information from the victim’s computer has been identified by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) two weeks in advance of activation, so people are in a unique position of being able to thwart the virus before it starts to steal information.
Who is at risk?
Computers running Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, Vista, XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Server 2003, 2008, 2008 R2, and 2012 are all at risk from the virus that is distributed via links or attachments in unsolicited emails, ironically offering advice on how to update anti-virus software!
The FBI has identified Syrian-born Russian Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev as the potential ringleader of the cyber gang that released both GameOver Zeus and Cyberlocker [reported in DATAFORT Flashes of Insight from 28 November 2013.] There are unconfirmed reports that one of the other suspects in the gang is from Great Britain.
What can you do?
Prevention is always better than cure, so encourage your employees to be cautious about opening emails and clicking on links and attachments. However, if you do have the misfortune to be infected with an undocumented virus or malware, having an up-to-date backup strategy can save most if not all information from infection. DATAFORT recommends that especially FCA regulated companies use a strategy that carries out backup events throughout the day. This will enable you to recover from a time-slice just prior to infection, where those companies using a nightly backup strategy could lose as much as a full day’s information. “With Continuous Data Protection (CDP),” says Marcie Terman, Business Development Director of DATAFORT, “you lose all data saved after infection, but retain everything on your network that was saved before the computer became infected. If backups happen only once a day, you have the potential to lose all data created after the latest backup event. If you are backing up every 15 minutes, like DATAFORT services do, the lost data potential is a maximum of 14 minutes 59 seconds.“
For further advice on computer security that provides protection against a full range of risks including undocumented virus attack or hardware failure contact DATAFORT at 0800 45 44 35.