travis' brain dump

So, I’m not sure if any of you have run into this (if I were a betting man I’d say yes) but the latest round of malware distribution is taking the net by storm in the form of fake CNN news items. You may notice some items in your inbox that have the following subject line:

“CNN.com Daily Top 10” & “CNN Alerts: My Custom Alert”

 While opening the mail doesn’t actually do anything to your system, following the links can set you up for disaster. Once clicked the link will take you to a fake cnn.com page that will prompt you for an install of a viewer. Typically flashupdate.exe; get_flash_update.exe and watchmovie.mpg.exe. Once installed it leaves your systems open to a variety of issues.

 Be on the lookout people. As usual, don’t install things you don’t know about, don’t install stuff you think you’ve already installed and if you’re in any way confused. Click cancel and email or call your IT support.

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Also something to be aware of. There has been a rash of similar type installations being prompted on social networking sites such as myspace.com and facebook.com. The same rules as above apply. Be smart, be safe!

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