If you’ve received some suspicious email from Grimes County officials, you’re not alone. And you’re right to be suspicious. That’s because the county’s I.T. specialist says they’re not from the county and county servers haven’t been hacked.
Greg Cannon says it’s all the work of some smart and diabolical hackers who’ve gone “phishing.” That’s when they grab a valid email address and take that and mask it in the head of an email, he explains, so it appears that the email came from that valid address, when it didn’t.
So he urges everyone to be careful how you respond to your email. When you assume it comes from who it says it’s from, by clicking on the link, you’ve “taken the bait.”
Cannon cautions Navasota News that every time you click on a link, you are granting access to your computer. And even if it doesn’t look like the clicking caused any harm, if it’s “phishing,” it may well have. It embedded a virus on your computer that may go to sleep for awhile, or only work during late hours, or capture keystroke information, or scan for Social Security information, banking information, passwords, etc.
Or, he continues, it could embed ransomware on your PC. that’ll deny you access to all of your data.
And although he has taken steps to stop any future illegitimate county emails, Cannon urges everyone to always use their common sense. Anytime you receive suspicious email, call first to confirm it is legitimate before clicking on it.