What are Gameover Zeus and Cryptolocker?
Gameover Zeus is used by cybercriminals to intercept transactions during online banking sessions and Cryptolocker is a form of ransomware, which works by encrypting files on the victim’s hard-drive, then demanding payment for the key to decrypt.
What happened?
The UK National Crime Agency and the FBI, working with antivirus and other vendors, say they were able to significantly disrupt two financial malware operations: Gameover Zeus botnet and Cryptolocker ransomware network.
How to protect yourself
Some antivirus say customers are already protected against versions of Gameover Zeus and Cryptolocker. However, here are some tips;
- If you, or your customer, receives an e-mail with an attachment – Do not open it unless it’s expected.
- Do not click on website links to download files unless you have requested them
- Make sure your endpoint security software is updated to the latest version
- Review your anti malware strategy and tools
- Run regular full scans of your computers and backup your files (think carefully about how the backups are stored and accessed as Cryptolocker uses shares and network access to lock files)
- Use strong passwords
- Educate your users – make them aware of the threat especially on emails – consider filtering options
- Build and test a contingency plan