December 2006

Be Careful of Holiday Greetings Attachments

Since this is the season to sent and receive pictures, songs, and other greetings you must be extra alert to the hidden dangers of email attachments containing evil crap. As always, the best practice is don't click on any link you have doubts about and delete any attachments you were not expecting. Should you in error activate one of these evil things your anti-virus software should stop it. You do have anti-virus software, right?

Yahoo IM client flaw is patched

If you use Yahoo! Messenger IM client you should immediately upgrade to fix a highly critical breach that opened up. Visit Secunia at: http://secunia.com/advisories/23401/. Yahoo! has the information here.

MS Word Flaw

Don't accept Microsoft Word .doc attachments via email or Instant Messaging unless you are expecting it and you know the sender. Instead, try Openoffice.org why doncha?

Quicktime movies phishing MySpace.com users through Internet Explorer

Quicktime .mov files have been exploited in order to, at least in part, launch phishing attacks against myspace.com patrons. The SpywareGuide Greynets Blog summerized it thus: 1) A new Myspace worm 2) Bad guys using HREF functionality available to Quicktime files 3) Hacked websites hosting fake Myspace login details 4) A pornographic website (linked to from various hacked profiles) that contains Zango content, as well as using a popunder to display more Zango videos. More info is here and here.