Notification of Information Regarding Recent Email System Attacks

By an overseas Dafa practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net)

In the past few days (starting from October 15, 2003), the perpetrators have started using another type of attacks. They have started attacking our email systems. As we already know, at the present time they impersonate people we are familiar with and use the words and phrases that we commonly use. For example, "Good effect of clarifying truth using various ways," and words like that. Sometimes they even attach an article from Minghui. For some new content, they either insert an HTML file (opening the file is similar to visiting a website), or ask users to click a website link. We already know one website that was specially made by them for some places in Shandong Province.

What are the consequences after you click? It will download a program that could be a virus onto your computer. This is an Internet Explorer loophole and if you don't have the most recent anti virus patch, it could be trouble. This is possibly a Trojan virus specifically designed to target us. In the worst case scenario the virus could report the contents of your computer, and give remote control power over your computer to people in Mainland China.

Security methods that need to be adopted:

1. Update your computer with the newest version of MS-Windows. Microsoft has just announced the most recent patches for seven loopholes. Sign up for an automatic daily update for the newest patches for Windows. Please visit http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/7/13/38075.html for the installation instructions.

2. Install reliable anti-virus software and automatically update the definitions of the new viruses. Set up for a weekly update at the minimum.

3. Install a firewall. Firewall software is a must. We recommend ZoneAlarm, which can be downloaded from http://zonelabs.com/download/. The free version is fine.

4. The Internet Explorer browser and related Outlook Express/Outlook email system have many hidden safety issues. If you don't want the information on your computer to be stolen by a hacker, it is recommended that you give up IE or related Outlook Express/Outlook. You can use Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org) or Netscape (http://netscape.com/) to browse the Internet and send or receive emails. As for reliable websites (such as Dafa websites), you can use IE.

5. For suspicious information or websites, or if you get a downloading prompt and you don't know what it is, you should absolutely refuse them. For the emails that you have some doubts about, please delete them. Generally speaking, don't casually open email attachments unless you can verify the contents. If it is necessary, you can contact the email sender for verification. For things you are not clear on, you can consult local practitioners who provide technical support.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/10/23/59257.html

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