Security PSA

joec@aracnet.com

2010-10-22

Most placed have a way to enable 'White Lists' by domain/IP. I had that
problem with OBRA
emails for awhile as well until I whitelisted the obra.org domain name.

Joe

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:36:39 -0700, Cheryl Willson
wrote:
> There's a chance, if you up your spam settings with Comcast, that you
> won't get OBRA Chat emails. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to
> get them to stop refusing the OBRA Chat emails as potential spam.
>
> You can always read them online of course.
>
>
> On Oct 21, 2010, at 12:32 PM, wrote:
>
>> Let me add further to Kenji's post:
>> 1 - If you receive an email either to your primary email (i.e. Yahoo,
>> gmail, comcast) with the subject
>> "I cant beleive you did this!", it is likely a worm. It plants file
>> on your PC that scans
>> messages or files for personal information.
>>
>> 2 - There are a number of Facebook viruses running rampant in which
>> someone who may/maynot be on your
>> Freind's List that attempt to send you a link to pictures. This is
>> whre it helps to 'know' your
>> freinds. If it sounds even remotely out of character interms of
>> what they would write/say, then
>> are your friewnd's account has been compromised/hacked into.
>>
>> 3 - In terms of halting spam, the best defense is to block the crap at
>> the point of attack (literally).
>> If you go through Comcast, talk with them about adjusting your
>> firewall/email filter settings. If
>> you go through a local ISP (many of you have Spiritone), you can go
>> through their web-mail interface
>> and setup various spam filters to block specific countries (for
>> example, I dont allow anything from
>> China, Russia, France or Korea).
>>
>> 4 - In terms of virus software, I strongly recommedn ClamAV for either
>> linux or Mac users. For Windows,
>> Norton is good but NOT the best. Kapersky works better, especially
>> on the email/web-based attacks
>> that are all the 'rage' among hackers/phishers/criminals. It is
>> also cheaper ($27.00 vs $40.00).
>>
>> HTH,
>>
>> Joe
>>
>> On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:11:20 -0700, "T. Kenji Sugahara"
>> wrote:
>>> Folks,
>>>
>>> I seem to be getting a rather large number of e-mails from OBRA
>>> members' e-mail accounts that have been compromised. Please make sure
>>> that you always do the following:
>>>
>>> If you get a link from someone, never click on it- even if it is from
>>> someone you trust. Verify first. Is it from Facebook, Myspace? Go
>>> directly to your facebook and see if there's an actual message/post
>>> waiting.
>>> Double check with the sender- ask- did you send this to me?
>>>
>>> Use a strong password, especially on services such as hotmail and
>>> gmail. Don't use easy to guess passwords such as names, birth dates
>>> etc. Just to give you an example, I use 16 character passwords on my
>>> most secure stuff. While this may be overkill for most people, use a
>>> password that contains both digits, letters and symbols. Don't do
>>> something like your name and birth year though. That's easy enough
>>> for scammers to pick up.
>>>
>>> Make sure that you active virus/trojan/malware protection. Beware of
>>> popups that say "you have a virus, trojan, etc." There are known
>>> pieces of malware that are linked to those popups that actually
>>> install malware on your system.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> OBRA mailing list
>> obra@list.obra.org
>> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
>> Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org


Cheryl Willson

2010-10-22

There's a chance, if you up your spam settings with Comcast, that you won't get OBRA Chat emails. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get them to stop refusing the OBRA Chat emails as potential spam.

You can always read them online of course.

On Oct 21, 2010, at 12:32 PM, wrote:

> Let me add further to Kenji's post:
> 1 - If you receive an email either to your primary email (i.e. Yahoo,
> gmail, comcast) with the subject
> "I cant beleive you did this!", it is likely a worm. It plants file
> on your PC that scans
> messages or files for personal information.
>
> 2 - There are a number of Facebook viruses running rampant in which
> someone who may/maynot be on your
> Freind's List that attempt to send you a link to pictures. This is
> whre it helps to 'know' your
> freinds. If it sounds even remotely out of character interms of
> what they would write/say, then
> are your friewnd's account has been compromised/hacked into.
>
> 3 - In terms of halting spam, the best defense is to block the crap at
> the point of attack (literally).
> If you go through Comcast, talk with them about adjusting your
> firewall/email filter settings. If
> you go through a local ISP (many of you have Spiritone), you can go
> through their web-mail interface
> and setup various spam filters to block specific countries (for
> example, I dont allow anything from
> China, Russia, France or Korea).
>
> 4 - In terms of virus software, I strongly recommedn ClamAV for either
> linux or Mac users. For Windows,
> Norton is good but NOT the best. Kapersky works better, especially
> on the email/web-based attacks
> that are all the 'rage' among hackers/phishers/criminals. It is
> also cheaper ($27.00 vs $40.00).
>
> HTH,
>
> Joe
>
> On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:11:20 -0700, "T. Kenji Sugahara"
> wrote:
>> Folks,
>>
>> I seem to be getting a rather large number of e-mails from OBRA
>> members' e-mail accounts that have been compromised. Please make sure
>> that you always do the following:
>>
>> If you get a link from someone, never click on it- even if it is from
>> someone you trust. Verify first. Is it from Facebook, Myspace? Go
>> directly to your facebook and see if there's an actual message/post
>> waiting.
>> Double check with the sender- ask- did you send this to me?
>>
>> Use a strong password, especially on services such as hotmail and
>> gmail. Don't use easy to guess passwords such as names, birth dates
>> etc. Just to give you an example, I use 16 character passwords on my
>> most secure stuff. While this may be overkill for most people, use a
>> password that contains both digits, letters and symbols. Don't do
>> something like your name and birth year though. That's easy enough
>> for scammers to pick up.
>>
>> Make sure that you active virus/trojan/malware protection. Beware of
>> popups that say "you have a virus, trojan, etc." There are known
>> pieces of malware that are linked to those popups that actually
>> install malware on your system.
>
> _______________________________________________
> OBRA mailing list
> obra@list.obra.org
> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
> Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org


joec@aracnet.com

2010-10-21

Let me add further to Kenji's post:
1 - If you receive an email either to your primary email (i.e. Yahoo,
gmail, comcast) with the subject
"I cant beleive you did this!", it is likely a worm. It plants file
on your PC that scans
messages or files for personal information.

2 - There are a number of Facebook viruses running rampant in which
someone who may/maynot be on your
Freind's List that attempt to send you a link to pictures. This is
whre it helps to 'know' your
freinds. If it sounds even remotely out of character interms of
what they would write/say, then
are your friewnd's account has been compromised/hacked into.

3 - In terms of halting spam, the best defense is to block the crap at
the point of attack (literally).
If you go through Comcast, talk with them about adjusting your
firewall/email filter settings. If
you go through a local ISP (many of you have Spiritone), you can go
through their web-mail interface
and setup various spam filters to block specific countries (for
example, I dont allow anything from
China, Russia, France or Korea).

4 - In terms of virus software, I strongly recommedn ClamAV for either
linux or Mac users. For Windows,
Norton is good but NOT the best. Kapersky works better, especially
on the email/web-based attacks
that are all the 'rage' among hackers/phishers/criminals. It is
also cheaper ($27.00 vs $40.00).

HTH,

Joe

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:11:20 -0700, "T. Kenji Sugahara"
wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I seem to be getting a rather large number of e-mails from OBRA
> members' e-mail accounts that have been compromised. Please make sure
> that you always do the following:
>
> If you get a link from someone, never click on it- even if it is from
> someone you trust. Verify first. Is it from Facebook, Myspace? Go
> directly to your facebook and see if there's an actual message/post
> waiting.
> Double check with the sender- ask- did you send this to me?
>
> Use a strong password, especially on services such as hotmail and
> gmail. Don't use easy to guess passwords such as names, birth dates
> etc. Just to give you an example, I use 16 character passwords on my
> most secure stuff. While this may be overkill for most people, use a
> password that contains both digits, letters and symbols. Don't do
> something like your name and birth year though. That's easy enough
> for scammers to pick up.
>
> Make sure that you active virus/trojan/malware protection. Beware of
> popups that say "you have a virus, trojan, etc." There are known
> pieces of malware that are linked to those popups that actually
> install malware on your system.


T. Kenji Sugahara

2010-10-21

Folks,

I seem to be getting a rather large number of e-mails from OBRA
members' e-mail accounts that have been compromised. Please make sure
that you always do the following:

If you get a link from someone, never click on it- even if it is from
someone you trust. Verify first. Is it from Facebook, Myspace? Go
directly to your facebook and see if there's an actual message/post
waiting.
Double check with the sender- ask- did you send this to me?

Use a strong password, especially on services such as hotmail and
gmail. Don't use easy to guess passwords such as names, birth dates
etc. Just to give you an example, I use 16 character passwords on my
most secure stuff. While this may be overkill for most people, use a
password that contains both digits, letters and symbols. Don't do
something like your name and birth year though. That's easy enough
for scammers to pick up.

Make sure that you active virus/trojan/malware protection. Beware of
popups that say "you have a virus, trojan, etc." There are known
pieces of malware that are linked to those popups that actually
install malware on your system.

--
Kenji Sugahara
Executive Director
Oregon Bicycle Racing Association
Phone:  503-278-5550
http://www.obra.org