Like other forms of malware, ransomware constantly evolves to ensure that as many unsuspecting victims can be attacked as possible before the word gets out about the latest threat.
A new ransomware strain called Cerber is hitting people hard right now, and this one is especially insidious because many victims are paying the ransom only to discover after payment is made that their data wasn’t encrypted, but deleted outright.
As you can see, it definitely pays to avoid falling victim to a Cerber attack. Luckily, it’s actually pretty easy to avoid this threat altogether because it’s being spread via phishing emails and malicious text messages.
All you have to do is remember the golden rule of email and text message links: Don’t open them, even if you trust the apparent sender!
Email addresses and phone numbers are easily spoofed, making it virtually impossible to distinguish a legitimate message from a malicious hoax message.
Of course it also helps to know how to recognize fraudulent emails so you can avoid interacting with them. This post has some tips for helping you recognize them quickly so you can delete them before you have a chance to click on a malicious link.
Bottom line: The Cerber ransomware is attacking devices all over the place right now, but you can easily avoid it by not opening links in emails or text messages.
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