Posts Tagged ‘spam’
Spam Comes In All Forms – This One Carries the Wikileaks Moniker
December 8th, 2010Spam, and the massive destruction that accompanies it, has a way of riding on the back of whatever topic is popular at the moment. Right now, the latest news is spam carrying a Wikileaks worm. Symantec released an article today warning the public of the threat entitled “IRAN Nuclear BOMB!” from the Wikileaks organization which is not the case. The only content is a URL, which, when clicked, will download a threat identified as W32.Spyrat.
W32.Spyrat opens a backdoor using a predetermined port and IP address, allowing an attacker to perform the following actions on the compromised computer:
- Read, write, and execute files
- Steal stored passwords
- Issue commands
- Activate and view a webcam, if present
- Log keystrokes
- Create an HTTP proxy to route traffic through the compromised computer
Do not open this email or click on the URL if received. Read on for the full article at Symantec .
Julie Settle, A&J Computers Inc.
8 Tips to Stay Cyber Safe
October 15th, 2010The month of October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). NCSAM is a national public awareness campaign to encourage everyone to protect their computers and our nation’s critical cyber infrastructure. Cyber security requires vigilance 365 days per year. However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), the primary drivers of NCSAM, coordinate to shed a brighter light in October on what home users, schools, businesses and governments need to do in order to protect their computers, children, and data.
Online:
- Keep your personal information private on social networks.
- Install a URL scanning tool to alert you of potentially harmful web links.
- Review your bank account and credit card statements regularly for questionable charges.
- Review your credit report and credit score regularly.
- Choose difficult encrypted passwords, consider using KeePass to safely store all your passwords.
On Your Computer:
- Keep your operating system and software programs up to date.
- Install these type software programs: anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall .
- Back up your computer data regularly.
Below are our recommend downloads to keep your computer safe:
- Anti-Virus: AVG Antivirus, Symantec Anti-Virus, Trend Micro AntiVirus
- Firewall: MS Windows firewall
- Anti-Spyware: Webroot’s Spy Sweeper
- URL Link Scanner: AVG LinkScanner
- Credit Report: Federal Trade Commission
- Credit Score: Credit Karma
- Password: KeePass
Below are additional sites listed by the NCSAM:
- Anti-Virus: ESET NOD32 Antivirus, F-Secure Internet Security, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Norton AntiVirus, Webroot Internet Security
- Firewall: ZoneAlarm, Norton Internet Security
- Anti-Spyware: PC Tools Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 2011, STOPzilla (removal)
- Credit Report: Equifax, TrustedID
- Credit Score: myFICO
A&J Computers offers solutions for all your IT security needs. Visit us at ajcomputers.com for more details or contact with questions.
^ Julie Settle
A&J Computers Inc.
FTC shuts down Spam Network
July 11th, 2009Recently the Federal Trade Commission shut down a rouge Internet service provided doing business under the names Pricewart, 3FN and APS Telecom. People are reporting up to a 20% drop in spam levels. Email administrators (and us) are celebrating this as hopefully one in the start of many actions the FTC is going to take this year.
For those of you who host their email with us, let me give you an idea of the amount of spam we filter every day. As of July 1, 2009 we host about 150 domain names for customers with a total of 500 mailboxes. Every day we receive approximately 800,000 emails – of those, we allow around 20,000 emails into mailboxes. That’s 97.5% of all emails are tagged as spam by our filtering software. It’s a never ending battle for us every day.
If you want to read more about the FTC action, or see the rules around CAN-SPAM compliance (which every company is supposed to abide by), you can check out the FTC’s site.
FTC’s action against Pricewart: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/06/3fn.shtm
FTC’s page on CAN-SPAM: FTC’s page on CAN-SPAM: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm
