2018 came in like a lion and out like—a different lion. It’s fair to say that, despite a sleepy second quarter (there’s the lamb), this year was action-packed from start to finish. Fresh on the heels of a cryptomining explosion in the last quarter of 2017, 2018 began with threat actors diversifying their cryptomining tactics, broadening their reach to Android, Mac, cryptomining malware, and experimenting with new innovations in browser-based attacks.
While cryptomining died down by the second quarter, a new set of threats were eager to take its place: information stealers. These former banking Trojans— especially Emotet and TrickBot—evolved into droppers with multiple modules for spam production, lateral propagation through networks, data skimmers, and even crypto-wallet stealers. These variants of malware focused their energies on ensnaring businesses, gleaning the most profit from ultra-sensitive data that could be sold on the black market for re-targeting in future campaigns.

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This is a community service announcement
from your Tellico Village Computer Users Club

TVCUC First Level Support
SCAM WARNING

The Tellico Village Computer User Club First Level Support Team and our partners in Tellico Village have noticed an increase in calls from Members getting warnings.  Such as: a call from “Microsoft”, seeing a notice on their machine “Strongly” warning them that they have been infected with a Virus, the screamer (if you have had you know what I mean) or a notice that “Something” is wrong with their machine.
IGNORE THESE WARNINGS.  DO NOT RESPOND TO THE MESSAGES. 
If you receive an on screen notice, turn off your machine immediately– no matter what the notice says.

If you respond to these people, they can be very persuasive.  Some claim to be Microsoft Certified and they may be–anyone can get certified.  They want you to connect to their web site and then they will download software, turn off your virus protection, change locations of critical protection software and then tell you “they can fix it” for a nominal charge.  If you say no, they will leave your machine in the messed up (technical term) state and you are on your own.
So far the people that responded to the warning by calling have needed a complete reloading of the Operating System.
So, please just hang up on the phone call or shut down your machine, it will make it much easier on us all.  Often after shutting down and rebooting your machine, the message disappears.  If the message remains, call the FLS Helpline at 865-408-8223.

This is a community service announcement from your Tellico Village Computer Users Club