If an email appears legitimate, the prudent course is to delete the email and open a separate browser to visit the website directly.

Think twice (or three times) before you click a link. Be skeptical of emails from unknown sources, or from known sources that don’t typically email you. Well-executed spear phishing attacks can be very convincing.

The most critical thing for individuals is awareness and common sense. From a compliance and data protection perspective, users should not be storing or sharing company data on personal Dropbox accounts. Unless a business happens to subscribe to a Dropbox business plan, blocking Dropbox makes sense anyway. Sjouwerman advises that businesses block access to Dropbox, because the malicious links and ransomware files use the Dropbox domain. KnowBe4 CEO Stu Sjouwerman points out that all of the tens of millions of records that have been compromised in data breaches make it significantly easier for attackers to compose more effective spear phishing attacks. Pacman’s initial victim pool is small, but we can assume it will spread.

Dropbox ransomware protection