The release of the final Star Wars movie this month has been accompanied by a surge in fake download sites offering early or free access to the film while really depositing malware onto fans computers.
For organisations that allow employees to take laptops home for the holidays, this may pose an additional risk if the company machine is used to try to access the fake download sites and becomes infected.
Now could be an opportune time to remind employees that they (or other members of their household…) should not use the company laptop to attempt to download or stream movie files over Christmas.
Security Software vendor Kaspersky has discovered 30 websites and social media accounts already that are offering early access to Star Wars as the bait to lure in victims.
When laptops are taken home from work and connected to domestic Wifi, it can be easy to forget that they are now no longer behind the corporate firewall and could be more vulnerable to exploits which are then carried back into the office network on Monday.
Some anti-virus and end point protection applications include next generation firewalls and content filters that run on the laptop and continue to provide protection when the device steps out from behind the corporate firewall at head office. Now may be the time to check if yours are active and configured.
“We were very impressed with the service, I will say, the vulnerability found was one our previous organisation had not picked up, which does make you wonder if anything else was missed.”
Aim Ltd Chief Technology Officer (CTO)