Malicious email from nefarious ne’er-do-wells

I spotted this via a Tweet by Patrick Madrid.  While you are at it, would you please follow me on Twitter?

At PC Magazine there are some tips to spotting malicious email.

I get a lot of email.  A LOT.  My antennae are constantly waving and on alert.

Malicious email from nefarious ne’er-do-wells can contain malware or can be phishing scams.

You don’t want to be the victim of identity theft.

I have it. Think about it.

I keep my virus scanning software updated.  I run that software.  I run other malware detection programs periodically, at least once a week.  I am very careful about incoming mail. I also have a LifeLock account.

I wish there were a filtering program that could identify and eliminate stupid.  You should see some of the stuff I get.  But I digress.

So, get smart, get cleaning and prevention software, get a UPS.

Do you just open everything that comes into your inbox?  I’d rethink that if I were you.

Lot’s of us live a great deal of life online.  We have to keep our heads in the game.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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5 Comments

  1. VexillaRegis says:

    The idea of a filter for stupid sounds really appealing to me. I’d particularily like one that works in real life. Imagine a cellphone app that automatically switches on whenever someone says something stupid or unorthodox and just eliminates his or her words!

    Could be used on politicians, nasty bosses, annoying neighbours, bad homilists, et c.!

  2. Supertradmum says:

    Good idea. I get nasty things in my blog but mostly from the same sources. There are a few trolls out there and a few sad souls who target me. I have only had two real threats in a little over five years of blogging. Of course, identity theft has horrible consequences. A friend of mine, a doctorate in math, went to see his family in the Middle East and had his identity stolen while there, (nation not to be mentioned). It took him three months and tons of money to sort it out and he could not get back to the States until the problem was solved. As an American citizen, he still had to get his own family at home to send him money for housing and food, as well as pay for the services so he could get on a plane and come home.

    He will never travel there again and will not see his family there again after this trauma.

  3. Supertradmum says:

    PS, Father, which LifeLock account do you have? Is the basic good enough do you think?

  4. Charles E Flynn says:

    Your situation would be even worse if squirrels had email.

  5. chris1 says:

    Who hosts your email, Father? If you use Google or Microsoft, you can do some pretty intricate filtering, customized to go ahead and eliminate “stupid” stuff. If you’re using Microsoft Office 365, the filtering of malware is excellent. I’m admin for my employer, a small nonprofit with about 200 email accounts, and the stats indicate that 60% of incoming email never reaches our users’ inboxes because it is identified as spam or malicious.

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