The Security Mentor

Last fall an estimated million and a half computers were infected with a malicious program which spread by pretending to be a Microsoft security update. It was a truly nasty piece of work which tried to turn off firewall and antivirus software. It came as an attachment to email forged to look like it came from Microsoft.

Forged security bulletins from Microsoft are something you can spot and avoid. Microsoft tells you how on their web site. The simplest check you can make is to look at whether there's an attachment. Attachments will never carry security updates, Microsoft promises. The second simplest is to look at the Microsoft web site to see if the email matches a real Microsoft security bulletin.