Email Scams Abound for Users

I was reading this week about two new exploits that are possibly appearing in an inbox near you. They are both propagating through email, phishing as it is known, and they are both capable of doing some pretty serious damage. In fact, while they are not exactly the same, they do exploit users in similar ways: by duping the user into believing the email has come from a trusted source (on from LinkedIn and one from Microsoft) and executing an attachment included with the email. These tactics are pretty old school; however their effectiveness is clear; users continue to open these attachments and infecting themselves. The payload for both is to open up your computer to attack from the outside and stealing usernames and passwords from your computer. Unfortunately, people rely far too much on their anti-virus, anti-spyware programs to protect them; blindly opening attachments without a thought to the consequence. As I have told clients time and time again: I would not run my computer without these programs but NOTHING is 100% effective and someone always has to be first in a new (or re-worked) exploit. I don’t want it to be you. End users have to be very careful and responsible with any attachment, from any person or entity, at any time, for any reason. You have to examine the email content; you have to think about the likelihood that the promised information makes sense or was even requested. For instance, the exploit “from” LinkedIn contained wording in the email that the contact list “you requested” was attached. Somehow I doubt that everyone infected by this email requested a contact list-this is the first clue-if you did not request it, do not open it. The email “from” Microsoft was supposedly a security fix MS was emailing to you. So this one is two-fold easy to spot: 1) MS NEVER, EVER, emails security patches to you. Never. 2) If this exploit was to be believed, it would mean that Microsoft has the email address of every single Microsoft user everywhere. Now I realize people find Microsoft is far too powerful and all knowing, but this is a stretch. I often hear from people that the reason they opened an attachment is because it came from someone they knew or trusted. Please be aware that this is one of the most common ways to get infected. Someone you know gets some malware and that malware emails itself to everyone in that address book. You always have to be on the lookout-even when it comes from Mom.