Spoofing

Spoofing 

Ramesh, an employee of Government of Maharashtra, received an email claiming it to be from the Director of a Ministry. This email had a document as an attachment stating the form in the document 

Ramesh, following the order, quickly opened up the attachment to fill in all the detail.After some time to his surprise, he found that many of the files in his  computer were locked and encrypted 

The computer displayed a message stating that he has to pay up in order to get back his files and the documents.

Upon investigation, it was found that the sender address was a spoofed one. 

Email Spoofing is the forgery of an e-mail header so that the message appears to have originated from someone genuine whereas it is actually not. 

The virus here was Ransomware which encrypted many important files on the computer and did not allow him to access it. As the name suggests, the attacker demands for a “Ransom (money) in order to unlock and restore the files. 

what should you do? 

Check the email address before you open any attachment. 

1) Do not open the mail if you do not recognize the sender. 

2) If you suspect anything suspicious, call the sender to verify the mail. 

3)  Keep a backup of important files and documents. 

4) Do not proceed to pay even if you are infected. Ask an expert. 

5) Always keep your computer updated with a good anti-virus software.