No, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, isn’t releasing a new ransomware variant to boost Tesla’s profits. We have multiple clients who have been hit, almost simultaneously, with a relatively new ransomware variant called Teslacrypt, which appears to be delivered via a seemingly valid zipped email attachment similar to the following:

The attachment name can be a variant of the example above. The encryption key appears to use the uncrackable RSA-2048 bit encryption and the cyberterrorists only accept bitcoins as payment.

In both cases, the VersaTrust Antivirus software detected the attempted infection and notified us. We instructed the users to immediately unplug their computers from the network and turn them off to stop any encryption that may have been occuring. Fortunately these clients have our hourly server backup system, with good backup being the only way to recover from these types of infections.

Please send an urgent reminder to your employees to never open an email attachment or click an email link unless they can verify it’s authenticity from the sender. This is the best way to practice safe computing as these are by far the most common methods hackers use to propagate these campaigns.

We’re available as always for any questions you may have.

Danny

Danny Owens
CEO