An email from MS announcing a vuln. in its own software? Who'd believe that..?

First saw this about two years ago?

Is there still those out there that fall for this age old 'trick'?

I hate to say it but those that are too stupid to learn from the many past, well publicised similar tricks should just be left to fall foul.

On the other hand, those new to game should be warned - but it seems to be the same people every time that are caught by these.

I used to get 10s of these a day, a few (5?) years back - or at least I assumed at the time that were something similar, and that Microsoft weren't actually sending out hundreds of security updates a week (Unix users should feel free to use that as a set-up for a joke).

It's potentially a very effective avenue of attack as many users don't expect the "from" address to be spoofed - although one would hope their email client would pick up on this.

This is just a subtle modification of the swen virus we saw a few years ago (and which pops up every once in a while). Instead of putting the payload in the email, they now send you to a website and have you install it. Social engineering at its best. Or, as we called it at ISS, meat hacking.

If they did, I'd be out of a job. ;)

Reminds me of the story of the WordPerfect (that long ago!) helpdesk operator who had to deal with a call from a user whose screen had blanked. Eventually, the exasperated helper asked the user to check the power lead. "I can't see to do that" was the reply, "all the lights have gone off".

The helper takes a deep breath and calmly informs the user that there is a serious fault and that the computer must go back to the shop. "Oh dear" says the user, "what should I tell them?"

Letting go a little, the helper yells back, "tell them you're too effing stupid to use a computer!"

It's just Darwinism, really.

Stupid people stupidly gets viruses like this -> stupid people's PCs stop working -> stupid people stop using computers -> less stupid people on the net -> better net!

If they did, I'd be out of a job. ;) David Eddleman

David, you're being too hard on yourself: If you stopped using computers, I'm sure there's something you could be trained to do...