More malicious email and web site warnings

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As if you needed more reasons to be cautious when using email or browsing the web, here are two new warnings, from CERT and Malwarebytes.

According to CERT and the FBI, a new, active spear-phishing campaign is sending email to targeted recipients. This particular email purports to be from “National Center for Missing and Exploited Children” and its subject line is “Search for Missing Children”. Do not open this email or any of its attachments, which contain malware.

Malwarebytes, a respected anti-malware software vendor, recently posted a warning about fake Flash player updates that appear on some (mostly pornographic) web sites. Users are tricked into clicking a link that supposedly updates the Flash player, but actually installs malware. Once the malware is installed, legitimate web-based advertisements will be replaced by ads served by the perpetrators. The new ads are often pornographic in nature, and can appear over ads on any web site.

About jrivett

Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

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