Virgin Media Alert: Your device may have a virus

Has anyone else had this type of email?This doesn't seem to be a phishing or spam email (although many more looking like this could be circulated).

Looking around it could be due to VPN use, however not too sure how these organisations can pick and track that traffic up.

We are in the processes of checking all out Linux and Windows powered devices and servers, although nothing has cropped up yet.

Your Virgin Media account number: *******
Our Reference: VM****-WannaCry-*******

Dear *****,

Your personal data could be at risk of being inaccessible

We have been alerted that one or more of your devices has become infected with ransomware, a type of malicious software that encrypts all the information held on your device and demands a ransom payment in order for the files to be unencrypted.

Virgin Media and its network are not impacted by the ransomware attack. However, we were advised about the potential risk to your data through our work with a number of not-for-profit organisations across the banking industry and security sectors. These organisations collate information on devices across the Internet that appear to be infected by malware.

The WannaCry malware was detected on a device using your internet connection or home network on 13 May 2017.

For advice on how to deal with this problem please visit virginmedia.com/wannacry

Further help & support

If you would like further advice or to verify that this is a genuine Virgin Media communication then our community will be happy to help. Just visit virginmedia.com/community,select 'Help forum' and join in the conversation on the Security Matters board.

Yours Sincerely,

The Virgin Media team

Edited by cymru123 (Thu 18-May-17 18:44:26)

Is this you on a Virgin Media community forum?

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Security-matters...

Given someone who says no Windows machines says they got it, tempted to chase press team in the morning to ask how they are determining sending out of the letters - my guess is somehow you ended up on a list somewhere but nothing has actually been done to verify anything.

Subsequently seen the post at http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Security-matters...

As old P2P users will know people were well known for throwing out 'fake' IP addresses, so its possible systems are hovering those up, and thus people getting the letters.

@MrSaffron

Thanks. Yes saw that thread, however haven't commented on it. The current (limited) similarity is the use of VPN though there could be a lot more in the mix.

IF you have been watching the tech news, you will know that if you have been properly downloading the patches/updates on a windows 7 and above PC, you should be OK..


MS has released one for XP, in case it was not there..
http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?...

If you are a private user, you DO NOT have to pay for good antivirus - AVG and Avast! are very good, you just have to ensure you are a single user.. (continuously, but its is worth it.. )

Avast has a rootkit & unwanted program scanner, behavior and reputation protection, and can update silently every hour if you really want to (default is every 4 hours)

Edited by comnut1 (Thu 18-May-17 21:14:20)

Turns out to be a false positive - They are sent out if there has been any communication connected to the domain that @malwaretechblog registered the use for that was publicised by news outlets.

Post deleted by MrSaffron

Post was removed due to the link and while I saw nothing untoward on the site was not happy to leave the link there, particularly for a users first post and given the subject matter.

https://www.getsafeonline.org/ may have a lot to read on it, but its a safe site for those with concerns to visit and talks through the various issues and links to well known tools to help people.