New Malware May Destroy Your Records

The phishers are at it again trying to steal your login credentials. They are sending out email messages trying to trick people into installing new and dangerous malware to do the spying.

Cisco researchers have found a new malware that can avoid detection. It's called Rombertik and if it is discovered or even analyzed, it also has the ability to destroy the master boot record of the system. It is designed to steal sensitive information and login credentials from the browser.

There are several ways to identify phishing attempts. Typically, there is something that isn't quite correct in the "To" and "From" lines of the message. When it arrives in your Inbox, it might look like it came from someone you know or perhaps a well-known financial institution or retailer. However, when you open it and look at the entire address, it is garbage. 

Another indicator is that the message has a lot of grammatical and spelling errors.  The language is often not used correctly in the body of the message and there are a lot of punctuation mistakes as well.

A good rule to keep in mind is to never click on any links or open any attachments from anyone you don't know or if it's unexpected. Verify by making a quick phone call, sending a text message, or some way other than replying to the email you received to confirm that it's OK to open. 

Also, if you need to make changes to your online accounts, go into them directly and make the changes rather than clicking links.

It sounds elementary, but if a warning message about a phishing attempt appears on your screen, take a look at it before dismissing it blindly. Don't let security warning fatigue get to you. The tools are there to help.

Rombertik performs checks on the system once it's launched and after it confirms it isn't being analyzed, it decrypts and installs on the computer. If it determines it's being analyzed, it will try to destroy the Master Boot Record and subsequently reboot the computer so that it becomes unusable.