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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. |