Virus Warning - CryptoLocker Again

Good morning.

A particularly nasty Ransom-ware Trojan called CryptoLocker which first surfaced in September 2013 has become a serious threat once again.

The ransom-ware is entering peoples email inbox's appearing to be a scanned fax. The attachment is a zipped folder and if opened it will cause serious and potentially unrecoverable damage to your IT system and data.

The email is entering inbox's with subject headers such as:
• New Fax – 3 
• Scanned Fax 
• Fax@your domain

The safest option is that if you receive any emails contain the word FAX in the subject header with a zip file attached please do NOT open it.

The ransom-ware is activated by the user when they click to open the attachment and in some flavour a countdown timer or Red X will appear on the screen with a message saying your data is being encrypted. You will then be presented with the option to pay a ransom to get your data back; even if you pay the ransom your data will not be decrypted!

This ransom-ware is a real threat and if your system becomes infected there is no way to decrypt your files and you will lose everything unless a backup has been made!

As the ransom-ware is arriving by email we strongly urge you to be aware of your emails and be careful when opening attachments if they are not from a source you regularly receiving emails with attachments from.

We urge all users to be incredibly vigilant when opening all attachments and if your Anti-Virus protection says that an email or the attachment may include malicious items giving you the option to open it or not please do not open it!