Spammers and scammers have used all sorts of tricky subject lines and from addresses to make you want to open unexpected e-mails. One of the latest tricks amounts to scare tactics.
If you receive any unexpected e-mails from the FBI or with FBI.gov in the sender or reply-to field, it's a scam. It's not clear yet whether the attack is a virus, phisher, or just plain spam, but there's some sort of new e-mail scam involving faked FBI headers.
Unless you personally know someone who works for the FBI, there's no reason to open an e-mail claiming to be from them. The FBI does not send unsolicited e-mails to the public.
If you receive one of the new fake FBI emails and would like to help track down the source, you can submit a complaint at: www.ic3.gov . More information about FBI e-scams can be found on the official FBI site.
The EarthLink Security Center put out an alert today. If you're using Windows 2000 you should really read the entire alert.
New security threats have been identified. These threats are worms known as W32.Zotob.E and W32.Esbot.A.
Symptoms: These worms target only Windows 2000-based computers and takes advantage of a security issue that was addressed by a Microsoft Security Bulletin. Internet users that are running operating systems other than Windows 2000 are not affected.
A spam email reporting the attempted suicide of Michael Jackson actually takes users to a Web site that installs a virus, allowing the virus creator access to the infected PC.
New version of Bagle Downloader virus spreading quickly
A new version of the Bagle Downloader is spreading like wildfire via email, according to email filtering firm MessageLabs.
The as-yet-unnamed Bagle downloader variant installs a Trojan virus that attempts to download a malicious program that collects email addresses from the computer's hard drive. The virus then forwards itself to the email addresses it has discovered in the infected computer.
Apparently, the Sober virus that's infected many PCs recently was planning a second assault today to again infect millions of computers—but it's been stopped by German officials.
Proactive German computer officials shut down hundreds of servers that could have launched the next wave of Sober emails.
The best protection against Sober is still to update your virus software.
W32.Sober.O@mm is a new variant of the Sober worm virus which was detected yesterday. You may have begun to see messages beginning Monday, May 2nd. The subjects of these emails vary and may include: Re:Your Password, Re:Registration Confirmation, Re:Your email was blocked, Re:mailing error, Re: [blank]
These e-mails will have an attachment named: account_info-text.zip, mail_info.zip, or our_secret.zip ... etc.
Don't let your anti-virus software bring you down.
We expect that keeping our anti-virus software up to date will protect of from new viruses. But did you ever think your anti-virus software could be the reason you got a virus? Check out this article ( from News.com) about the latest vulnerability found inside anti-virus software. Remember it's not the first, and won't be the last, so keep your software up to date.
In on of my prior posts I discussed how viruses have made the leap to the mobile phone market. During my research I ran across this article (registration required) posted at the New York Times by Tom Zeller Jr. and Norman Mayersohn suggesting that a virus could end up in our automobile's computer system, and wreak all sorts of havoc. That leads me to think about our ever growing dependency on computers, networks and the code we call software. Where will the next viruses turn up, and how will they inconvenience us?
I recently heard about LG producing an "Internet Refrigerator" and if that wasn't enough they also introduced a microwave, washing machine and an air conditioner, all connected to the Internet, and potentially vulnerable to viruses. What happens when my PVR/Tivo gets an Internet connection or I switch to a Windows Media computer and my prime time TV viewing becomes dependent upon this computer. Imagine sitting down to watch the world series only to realize your home entertainment system is out of order do to a virus or spyware. Your over priced fridge and microwave become useless (other than cooling and cooking) and your washer decides to bleach your wardrobe. One things is for sure, there's plenty of job security for those of us in the Internet protection business.
It's only a matter of time before our mobile phones are powerful and connected enough to actually see a significant number of viruses and spyware. Well is the calm before the storm almost over? There have been recent sightings of a cell phone virus spreading itself through MMS (acronym for text messages with media i.e. pictures, video, music, etc.). This virus is named COMMWARRIOR. This virus is only affecting certain cell phones in particular the Symbian based Nokia Series 60 handsets. Although COMMWARRIOR is fairly benign, I'm not looking forward to what's on the horizon. One of the first reported cell viruses was Cabir also on the Symbian OS. A quick search at Symantec for the term SymbOS turned up around 30 versions of viruses affecting the Series 60 phones, most of them were variations of Cabir. Wonder when my Palm based Treo 600 will be targeted?
Companies that track computer viruses are reporting the spread of a new version of the PC virus called Bagle, which wreaked havoc on the Internet last year. Bagle is an email worm, which means it reproduces itself and infects other computers through email attachments. So you should be leery of opening any email attachments that you weren't expecting.
Whenever a new virus emerges, you'll notice that the antivirus companies assign a threat level to it. For instance, Bagle has been given a Medium risk level. But what exactly do these levels mean? To find out, we checked the website for Trend Micro, which assigns each virus with a risk rating of Low, Medium or High. To determine these levels, they evaluate three factors: the number of computers the virus has infected, the damage it could cause to a computer system, and the rate at which the virus can spread.
As for the Bagle worm, it's been assigned Medium due to increased prevalence. So the number of reported infections is significant, but it doesn't do much damage and should be fairly easy to contain. To keep your computer from getting infected, update your antivirus program's definitions and do not open any attachments unless you are certain they are legitimate.
Les Seagraves, Executive Editor EarthLink's Chief Privacy Officer, Les Seagraves, serves as Executive Editor of the Protection Blog. Les is a general counsel with EarthLink's legal department, where he leads the legal battle against spam and fraud. He's a frequent speaker for trade groups, conferences, continuing legal education and college classrooms. A true technology lawyer, Les has testified in congress and consulted with federal and state legislators on privacy, spam and other areas of technology law.
Mike Strutton As the Director of Product Management for EarthLink's Software Products, Mike has been engaged with many of EarthLink's protection products, aka The Blockers, as well as TotalAccess for Windows and Mac. Mike has been with EarthLink for over 10 years and has over 12 years of internet experience. Mike is an avid fan of the Apple Macintosh, but don't let that fool you, while he totes his Powerbook everywhere, he surrounds himself with 3 Dells in his office and 3 more at home.
Stephen Currie EarthLink's Director of Product Management for Communication Products is Stephen Currie, who oversees the EarthLink mail client, including the development and implementation of email tools like EarthLink spamBlocker. Stephen has also represented EarthLink at industry coalitions aimed at eradicating spam and other Internet abuse, and his expert opinion on spam has been featured in national media coverage.
Scott Mecredy A Senior Product Manager for Protection Software at EarthLink, Scott Mecredy has been developing consumer software for over 7 years. An industry thought leader (place pointer finger on chin and look longingly into space), he helped create ScamBlocker, the first comprehensive Phisher protection product available in the market. Scott's a Rock Star (in his own mind), and lives for one thing: a successful software launch.
Liza Barry-Kessler EarthLink's Senior Product Manager for Parental Controls. Although new to EarthLink, Liza is ancient in "internet years" having been online since 1987. She began her career in Parental Controls as a First Amendment lawyer at the Center for Democracy & Technology (www.cdt.org), where she was part of the team that launched the industry-wide internet-safety and privacy initiative, GetNetWise, in 1999.
Liza is also a nationally recognized expert on web filtering and internet privacy issues, both in the home and in school and library environments, and is co-author of the book "Privacy in the 21st Century: Issues for Public, School, and Academic Libraries," forthcoming from Libraries Unlimited publishers in June 2005.
