Security Series – Microsoft – Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution

Yet another attack going around….

It’s really simple to stop a lot of these attacks:

1) Don’t open emails from people you don’t know

2) If you do know the person, yet the message doesn’t make sense – DON’T open any links, call the person in question and ask

3) If you do get this type of email from someone you know, tell them about it so they can try to fix it.  If you don’t others in that persons contact list are at risk if they don’t practice the same safe computing as yourself.

 

IE6 and IE7 are both at risk as well as IE8 if you have changed the default security settings.  IE9 Beta is save from this attack.

READ ABOUT THE CURRENT ATTACK

CNET News – Microsoft warns of targeted attacks using new IE hole

Microsoft Announcement – Microsoft Security Advisory (2458511)

Touch & Cell Phones – Petri Dish of Viruses

This makes total sense and I wonder how many people actually clean their phone or touch products regularly.  I know I don’t, I will be doing it more often moving forward. 

The article puts your touch device or Cell phone having 18 times more bacteria than a toilet handle? 

CLEAN YOUR PHONE – Take a read of the entire article

Malicious Software – What are you doing about it? Security!

One of those things we say we should do and don’t…  My computer at home is only used by me, so I am confident that I will not do something silly and get infected.  My other systems in the house is another story – my wife and two daughters use this and you never know what might happen.  You need to keep yourself safe when on the WEB, if you don’t do a few basic things you just might end up getting infected and that is not fun.  Sometime you can get it removed and go on, other times you have to start from scratch which could mean losing information or just a lot of time or money to get it done.

First off everyone should have Antivirus software running and keeping it up to date.

You should also be running a Malicious Software Removal Tool regularly to ensure no one has done something they shouldn’t have….This advice was too late for my father-in-law whose system got infected bad!  All antivirus software is shut down, no internet access at all in order to download the MSRT either.  I am hoping the USB ports are not shut down as well as I am hoping to load up the MSRT from a USB key – we will have to see!

Microsoft – Malicious Software Removal Tool

The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool is a free malware scanner and remover which is updated every first Tuesday of each month. The tool (mrt.exe) is located in the system32 directory of Windows and it silently scans the computer after being updated via Windows Update. MRT or MSRT does not run to scan the system all the time but any PC user can manually scan the PC to check the system from Trojans, worms and other malware that MRT can identify. Note that MRT does not detect all type of threats but was developed by Microsoft to detect and remove malware that is in the wild, especially from worms that targets vulnerable components in Windows.

Related Articles

• Microsoft Tool Now Roots out Zeus Malware (pcworld.com)

To OPEN or NOT – New Virus

Opening that email or attachment can lead to mega fustration and lots of downtime as well as hurting others in your contact list.

Yesterday a bunch of very large companies got hit with a new virus, that is not playing nice at all.

Questions you need to ask yourself before you open an email or attachment

1) Do you know the sender

2) If you know the sending – do they normally send emails in this fashion (ie with attachements / general subject topic – “Here You have”)

3) With the current virus – Did you ask for a document to be sent

4) If your not sure “DON’T OPEN IT”

5) If your not sure, but know the sender – call them / email them asking about the email

I am sure I am missing some, if you have any please include and I will create a full list and post it on the BLOG.

Related Articles

• ‘Here You Have’ Virus Spreading Like Wildfire (lockergnome.com)
• ‘Here you have…’ virus hits major companies (msnbc.msn.com)
• Think Before You Click! ‘Here You Have…’ a Major Computer Virus (observer.com)

Knowledge & Information for PARENTS

I have been thinking…  I have posted before that I believe – we as TECH people have a responsiblity to keep not only kids save, but parents as well when they are on the internet.  We may take the information we know for granted, but many parents just don’t know and really don’t have the time to figure things out.  We need to HELP!

Most districts have parent section for getting information about the school and kids on the WEB, how about putting up important information that can keep them and their children save when at home.  This information would have to be front and center  – opening page of the Parent WEB – it will have to be updated, but keeping a history area of information as well.  You might want to have a TIP of the month put into the NEWSLETTER as well.  Some of you might already be doing this and that is great.

Getting this started at your district would be very simple, I have posted over the last few weeks about 5-6 items that you could include right away.  I will continue to include items of interest on security and internet safety that you can use as well.

Let me know what you think and if your already doing this, I would be interested in hearing about what you have done in this area.  Honestly – I will be looking into starting this in both my girls schools.