The Nigerian Communications Commission has alerted members of the public of a cybercrime group that has perfected a New Year scheme to deliver ransomware to targeted organizational networks.
A statement issued by NCC Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, disclosed that the new ransomware uncovered by security experts has been categorized as high-risk and critical by the Nigerian Computer Emergency Response Team’s (ngCERT) advisory released over the weekend.
According to the ngCERT advisory, the criminal group is said to have been mailing out USB thumb drives to many organisations in the hope that recipients will plug them into their PCs and install the ransomware on their networks.
While businesses are being targeted, the ngCERT advisory made known that criminals could soon begin sending infected USB drives to individuals.
Read Also:
According to ngCERT, the attack has been seen in the US where the USB drives were sent in the mail through the Postal Service and Parcel Service. One type contained a message impersonating the US Department of Health and Human Services and claimed to be a COVID-19 warning.
To mitigate the impact of the new cyber-attack and be protected from the ransomware, ngCERT has called on individuals and organisations not to insert USB drives from unknown sources, even if they’re addressed to them or the organization.
It further recommended that if the USB drive comes from a company or a person one is not familiar with and trusts, the source should be contacted to confirm they actually sent the USB drive.
Also, ngCERT advised Information and Communication Technology as well as other Internet users to report any incident of system compromises to it.
DAILY TRUST……
