Your Daily Computer Security Tips

Several big stories in the news over the last few weeks and months, have the spammers working overtime. The most dramatic of these is the Obama win in the U.S. presidential election. One security company says Obama-related spam and malware are accounting for 60% of all traffic on the Internet.

A favorite trick is to direct you to a page where you would see the election results. You are prompted to install some software to see Obama’s acceptance speech. Instead the software installs a Trojan, which could further download other malware and steal your personal data.

It was also reported that computers used by both Obama and McCain were broken into a few months ago. Many files relating to the policy positions of the candidates were stolen. A “foreign entity” is blamed.

The world-wide financial crisis has spawned a wave of spam claiming to be from U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The message says that he has been instructed by the U.N. to put $1 million into your bank account (would that it were so!).

People in England and Europe need to beware of phishing scams and spam related to the collapse of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki. The bank is called Icesave in England. This is a wonderful phishing opportunity for the crooks because British authorities are communicating with the 200,000 stranded customers of the bank by email.

Be constantly on guard against these and similar frauds. Do not open or read spam email. Above all, never click on links within such messages.