Unexpected Online Greeting Cards May Carry Trojan Horses   4/6/2005 - 901 views,

Wrote the ISC’s Greg Shipley:

We’re receiving more reports of email messages coming in posing as “postcard pickup” notifications that wind up delivering a trojan payload. One example we were forwarded is an email message claiming “You have just received a virtual postcard from a family member!” which apparently sends you to a “pickup” site that gives you an mIRC-based trojan. While it’s sad that we have to say this, the amount of cruft that’s being delivered via email continues to encourage us to take a “default deny” posture; without knowing the true source of an email, one has to be cautious on accepting just about everything these days.

A particularly insidious aspect of this new Trojan Horse attack is that the trojan programs insinuate themselves to already-existing programs on the system - programs which are recognized by the local firewall as being a permitted programs. Thus the trojan program completely bypasses any firewall protection.

One way to avoid the risk associated with links which arrive in email unbidden is, rather than click on the link, to one hand-type the URL into one’s browser, copying it from the email. That way you don’t risk your email showing one URL, but your browser being directed to another, more sinister site.