Tag Archive for: Malware

We would like to inform you that Microsoft has announced it is aware of ongoing targeted attacks, that try to exploit a new vulnerability in Office 356 and Office 2019.

This article informs you  about the status, risks and how to prevent your organization from getting infected.

Ongoing Attack against Office 365

Identified by Microsoft as CVE-2021-40444, the security issue affects Windows Server 2008 through 2019 and Windows 8.1 through 10 and has a severity level of 8.8 out of the maximum 10.

Microsoft is aware of targeted attacks that attempt to exploit this vulnerability by using specially-crafted Microsoft Office documents that are sent by Email.

An attacker could craft a malicious ActiveX control to be used by a Microsoft Office document that hosts the browser rendering engine. Upon opening it, the document loads the Internet Explorer engine to render a remote web page from the threat actor.

Malware is then downloaded by using a specific ActiveX control in the web page. Executing the threat is done using “a trick called ‘Cpl File Execution’,” referenced in Microsoft’s advisory.

How can you protect yourself

Customers should keep antimalware products up to date. Customers who utilize automatic updates do not need to take additional action, however it is advised to inform your staff once again not to open emails or attachments from unknown sources.

Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint both provide detection and protections for the known vulnerability.

Additional ways to protect your organization:

For customers who are looking for additional protection, we have two recommendations:

Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 (Advanced Threat Protection)

Defender for O365 Plan 1 protects your users from incoming virus or malware via email. The advanced anti spam/virus/phishing engine will scan all incoming email for any malicious content. This is recommended as an add on for all Business Basic, Standard, E1 and E3 subscriptions.

Malwarebytes EndPoint Protection

From our experience, especially for businesses in Asia, Malwarebytes offers by far the most effective antivirus protection for Laptops/Desktops and Servers. Malwarebytes is 100% managed in the cloud and Detects and blocks ransomware from encrypting files using signature-less behavioral monitoring technology. Identifies entire families of known malware by using a combination of heuristic and behavioral rules.

From our experience, we have seen Malwarebytes detect and protect customers data where other antivirus solutions such as Symantec, Kaspersky and others failed to detect the infection.

More information here: https://accessorange.com/malwarebytes/

If you want to know more about Defender for Office 365 or Malwarebytes, please contact our sales team at [email protected] or chat with us via our website chat.

Stay safe!

Ongoing e-mail Scam targeting Office 365 Customers

Please be informed that there is an online email scam going on,
targeting Office 365 customers.


The scam starts with the following kind of email:

(Note: We have removed personal information from this screenshot)

The link in this email will redirect you to a “Fake” Office 365 Login.


When users enter their username and password, it will be sent directly to the hackers, and they will use the information to access your Office 365 account.

Please share this information with all your colleagues, to prevent any leak of sensitive information.

How to Identify if a OneDrive link is safe?

We understand that sometimes you are not sure whether a onedrive link in an email is safe. In general you can check whether the link is safe by hovering the mouse over the icon. In the case of this spam mail you can see the following:
You can see that the link will point to http//alutech-sr.it.
Obviously this is NOT an Office 365 or Microsoft website.

If you are not sure about the origin of an email, always contact the sender first before opening the file.

Protect Yourself
Be aware of e-mail scams

Want to know more about other ways to protect your organization against scams and malware? Please contact us for more information.

Protect your organization against Ransomware

Make sure your business will not be the next one to appear on the news

Ransomware Infection Alert

Two Hong Kong travel agencies were hacked this week, having their company information held ransom, seeking a payout in bitcoin.

In the past weeks, similar incidents have happened with other companies, severely impacting their business.

Don’t become the next victim

AccessOrange can help you implement the tools that protect your network and your data.

Malwarebytes Anti-Ransom Protection

Protect your computers against ransom and malware infections with multi-layered, cloud-managed security via a single agent.

Malwarebytes Alert Window

Due to its AI, Machine Learning capabilities, Malwarebytes proactively identifies unknown viruses and malware based on anomalous features from known good files, making it more effective than any other anti-virus software that is out there.

Cloud Based Platform

The Malwarebytes console provides centralized policy management and consolidated threat visibility across all endpoints. Also including asset management capabilities. (Monitoring which software has been installed on the computer).

Malwarebytes Cloud Console Screenshot

Protect Yourself,  Start Using it Today!