Warning! Take Heed!

Fake USPS Emails in Circulation posted on Softpedia by Lucian Constantin. “A wave of fake United States Postal Service (USPS) emails currently making the rounds are trying to pass a trojan downloader for a shipping label.”

The spam emails pose as failed delivery notifications and bear a subject of  “Post Express Information. Your package is available for pick up.”


The contained message claimed that an error in the shipping address caused the package to be returned to the post office, from where it can be retrieved.

“Your package has been returned to the Post Express office. The reason of the return is ‘Error in the delivery address’ Important message!

“Attached to the letter mailing label contains the details of the package delivery. You have to print mailing label, and come in the Post Express office in order to receive the packages” the emails read.

The attachment is called Post_Express_Label_ID_[number].zip and contains a malicious executable of the same name.

My personal advice continues to be the same: Avoid clicking on links in the email message. Instead, type in the address by hand in your browser to go to the page and see what's up.

The Windows Shortcut Vulnerability

Be sure to update Windows XP to SP3.  If you haven't ever done this, now is the time.  The Windows shortcut vulnerability gives malware a wide open door to attack Windows systems.

Microsoft Security Advisory (2286198)

Trend Micro

Safe Computing!

This is an excellent blog post by Sarah Perez regarding malware getting on your computer when you click on short URLs on Twitter and Facebook pages.  The advice in the article is good so I won't repeat it here.

I'll just add these bits.

• Use Chrome as your browser.  If you don't use Chrome, use Firefox.
• Use Ubuntu or Mac OS X if you can.
• If you have to use Windows, it's imperative to keep it up to date and use virus software.  AVG and Avast are good choices.

Avast! You Virus!

A family member called with some version of a Vundo trojan last night.  I remembered a recent conversation with John Auty where he was talking about how excellent Avast was at handling that type of malware, especially with it's pre-boot checking.  (It reminds me of Dr. Solomon from the old days, and the Magic Bullet!).  I thumbed back through his blog posts and found where John wrote about Avast (Part 1 and Part 2).


Avast installed with no trouble (the malware was preventing AVG from installing) and, on reboot, it fixed the problem!


I've been using AVG for a while but I may have to give Avast a spin the next time I re-install or install Windows.  


The home version is free.  Recommended!