Filed under: Cybersecurity · Ransomware · July 2026
What happened
Security researchers are tracking an active phishing campaign in which criminals pose as Interpol’s cybercrime unit. The emails claim your company is under investigation and link to a password-protected Proton Drive archive that supposedly holds “video evidence.” The file inside is really a program disguised as a video — opening it installs custom-built ransomware that encrypts your files and demands payment. Businesses across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East have already been hit, spanning legal, medical, finance, media, and other everyday industries.
Why it matters to your business
This campaign is aimed squarely at small businesses without a dedicated IT or security team — exactly the kind of Phoenix companies most at risk. A “law enforcement is investigating you” email is engineered to make a busy owner or bookkeeper panic and click before thinking. There is no fixed ransom: the attackers size up your business only after they have locked your files, so even a small firm can face a painful demand — on top of downtime that stops billing, payroll, and QuickBooks cold.
What to do this week
Treat any unsolicited “law enforcement” email as a scam — real agencies don’t email you a Proton Drive link and a password. Turn on file extensions in Windows (File Explorer → View → Show → File name extensions) so a file named “evidence.mp4.exe” gives itself away. Never open password-protected archives from outside your company, and never run a file that asks you to “enable” or “unzip and open” it. Confirm your backups are running and kept offline or in a separate cloud account, and that MFA is on for email and Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Finally, give the people who handle email and invoices a quick heads-up that this exact scam is circulating.
The bigger picture
Ransomware crews keep leaning on fear and urgency because it works far better than any technical exploit, and once files are encrypted, paying rarely gets everything back cleanly. The only dependable “recovery” is not getting hit in the first place — layered email filtering, tested backups, and trained staff. → Why the Only True Recovery from Ransomware Is Prevention
Would your backups actually survive a ransomware hit — or just look like they would? Book a free consult → https://micro1tech.com/contact/