If you receive an email that tells you that your Microsoft Password is expiring, look at it closely and you will notice a lot of dead giveaways that it is fake.
First off, the subject might be misspelled like this one… “Acount important Update 09/11”. That should be the first red flag that something is not right.
But wait, there’s more – if you examine the from address, if it is NOT from Microsoft.com then you probably want to ignore it – “noreply@smartwaiver.com” has nothing to do with Microsoft in this case.
And if you hover over the “Keep My Password”, you will notice THAT is a bogus URL as well, not related to Microsoft.
Should you decide to click anyway, you may be taken to a malicious site. One that asks you to fill in your credentials to authenticate – doing so just gives the bad guys your login information and they can become you.
If you are running the latest updates to Chrome, you will get a notification in many cases that the site is malicious. Please heed that warning!
Remember, to keep yourself up to date, you should start with running a currently supported operating system, such as Windows 10, or even 11, or the latest releases of Apple Mac OS, or Linux. Running older versions means you may not get the latest updates.
You should insure all current updates are applied to your computers/servers for the OS and 3rd party software.
You NEED to run adequate anti-virus. We sell and support Trend Micro Business products such as Worry-Free Business Security and Services.
Backups are essential to recovering in the event you are exploited. Make sure you have proper backups made.
We recommend Servosity and offer that to our clients.
Finally – exercise caution when following links. A little common sense goes a long way.
Remember – it’s not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you!
We are happy to consult with your small or medium business for your firewall, anti-virus, patch management, backup and other security needs. Just use our contact form, or call us at 864-990-4748 ext 201
Be safe out there!