Spam Prevention Tips #4
In the old days computer viruses were computer viruses and antivirus programs protected your computer against them. In that bygone era spam was spam and was filtered by anti spam filters and software. And never the twain did meet. Today, as spammers constantly conjure up more sophisticated and cunning schemes to get into our mailboxes and convince us to open their messages, the lines have become extremely fuzzy and the two forms have merged.
Spammers now send us spam containing viruses in order to infect our computers with their spam bots, the intention being to turn our computers into zombies which then send out more spam on their behalf, courtesy of you and me. It has indeed gone full circle. Spammers spam us with viruses which in turn spam us with more viruses. And so it continues ad infinitum.
In the latest of these techniques spammers have developed a new trick where their spam email appers to come from Microsoft, advising us of a new important Windows security update. By opening the attached .exe file we can supposedly quickly patch our computer and protect ourselves from the new Windows vulnerability. Not so. In fact, the .exe file contains the Win32/Haxdoor Trojan which proceeds to steal passwords and private details such as financial information and personal identifiable data, sending them to the criminal spam gangs. Christopher Budd, a spokesperson from the software giant responded by reminding users that the software giant never delivers Windows updates via email, these are only distributed through the Windows Update tool built into the Windows operating system itself.
“As a matter of company policy, Microsoft will never send you an executable attachment… If you get an e-mail that claims to be a security notification with an attachment, delete it. It is always a spoof”
Remember the good old days when spam just tried to sell us anatomy enlarging pills or pump & dump stocks? How I long for those days again because now, spam has mutated. Today, spam is bent on infecting our computers and stealing from us. How times have changed for the worse!
Antivirus software always comes with a scheduler and usually these are set to update automatically straight out of the box. Yet some users actually turn this feature off, sometimes when troubleshooting an issue, and often forget to turn it back on. We can’t stress enough how important it is to keep your antivirus software updated, especially as a spam prevention measure.
So today’s lesson? Remember to keep your antivirus software updated, preferably opting for daily updates and at a time of day when you are likely to be using your computer. And crucially, don’t open attachments ending in .exe. Nobody really sends them anymore and most email programmes won’t even let us attach them meaning that if you get one, it’s unlikely that a real person has sent it. Even if it appears to have been sent by somebody you know, delete it without opening it. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
