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MCC Daily Tribune

Cybersecurity Alert

Please be aware that many MCC office PC's have recently been infected with viruses, most notably the Zeus virus. All evidence to date indicates its method of infection is through users clicking on spam email links or attachments, although some viruses can be self-propagating.

Once installed on a PC, the Zeus virus captures everything the user types on the keyboard, and then sends it to an external server. This is called key-logging. In addition to the risk of losing credentials to MCC systems, if you log onto websites from your work PC using personal credentials, you are also in danger of having your personal user ID's and passwords stolen. This enables access to your personal accounts including banking, social media sites, personal email, etc. Moreover, if you shop online from your PC, credit card information can be stolen and used for unauthorized purchases.

PC's infected with the virus need to be shut down immediately and swapped out for a clean replacement unit. This causes an extended interruption to users' work, especially if many computers are infected at the same time. This is in addition to the incremental workload imposed on the Technology Services staff.

Just as a reminder, MCC computers are provided for MCC business. Personal use not only exposes the college network and applications to malware, but also exposes your personal data to cyber criminals.

We have recently observed an uptick in spoof emails. These are emails that pretend to be from a person (frequently an MCC employee) or a company, such as Amazon, UPS, FedEx or the IRS. User behavior is the biggest threat to information security. The college's implementation of cybersecurity awareness training is to educate employees to recognize and avoid phishing emails and other threats. Please take this training seriously by internalizing the do's and don'ts included in the training program.

Eileen Wirley
Technology Services - AVP Office
07/30/2018