Foundation Email System Infected with a Virus
By Maura Teynor
October 16, 2020
The Richland County Foundation email system recently was infected with a virus/malware.
“I want to warn people about this virus and apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused.” said President Brady Groves.
Groves said no personal or financial information has been compromised. Any person or company which has communicated with the Richland County Foundation and/or its staff by email may have received an email purporting to be from the Foundation or someone connected with the Foundation, but which may actually have been generated by the virus or malware which attacked our system. If the email address from the sender is NOT “rcfoundation.org” then it is not a valid email from the Foundation. Do not open any attachments to such an email or any links contained within the body of the email and delete the email immediately.
E.S. Consulting of Mansfield provides email security services for the Foundation and has been working to eradicate the virus. E.S. upgraded the Foundation’s virus protection software for internal and external communication and worked with outside providers to the Foundation to coordinate solutions.
Email security tips:
~Watch out for phishing emails. The top five subject lines are Urgent, Request, Important, Payment, and Attention.
~Check the senders email address, is it correct?
~Review the text in the message, is its odd language?
~Never open unexpected attachments and/or links.
~Engage in security education around email security.
~Use strong passwords.
~Use email encryption.
