Clear Belief Systems Blog

There is a new email based Trojan attack that masquerades as request to update your Facebook account. It looks something like this:

Facebook Email

Needless to say, this is not something you should click on.  If you do so it will take you to a site that installs a virus on your computer.  This message is the result of a massive bot attack with an estimated 750,000 people having received the email.

Here are some links for additional information:
Massive bot attack spoofs Facebook password messages
Fake Facebook e-mail contains Trojan
Definition of a Trojan (from Wikipedia)

There is a new type of email phishing scam that is pretty nasty.  The subject for the email is usually something like “Critical Update for Microsoft Outlook” or “A new settings file for your domain has just been released”.  These can be very tricky because they frequently contain your actual domain or email address in the message.  The link that is included looks like it goes to your email system but actually takes you to a server that steals your login information.  Be very careful of these!

Here are a couple of examples:

Example 1

Dear user of the domain mailing service!
We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailboxsettings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:
(link omitted)
Best regards, domain Technical Support.

Example 2

Critical Update
Update for Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express (KB910721)
(link omitted)
Brief Description
Microsoft has released an update for Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express. This update is critical and provides you with the latest version of the Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express and offers the highest level of security and stability.
Instructions

*     To install Update for Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express (KB910721) please visit Microsoft Update Center:
Quick Details

*     File Name: officexp-KB910721-FullFile-ENU.exe
*     Version: 1.5
*     Date Published: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:43:01 +0530
*     Language: English
*     File Size: 100 KB

As you can see, these are very clever attacks.

Microsoft has released their biggest security update ever, I highly recommend you install this latest round of mea culpa’s from the crowd in Redmond.  This set of updates fixes 34 flaws, including 21 Microsoft has marked as critical.

Here are some links with additional details:

Computerworld Security, Microsoft Delivers Massive Patch Tuesday

Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for October 2009