Barracuda
Networks, a maker of spam firewalls, says spammers
are expected to intensify their efforts as April 1
nears.
As if the flow of spam isn't problematic enough, here
comes another wave.
Barracuda Networks, a maker of spam firewalls, says
E-mail users should prepare for a spike in spam activity
leading up to April Fool's Day. Spammers are expected
to use subject lines such as "great joke,"
"free jokes," "prank," or "April
fools" to entice users into opening attachments
that carry viruses or objectionable content, potentially
putting company networks at risk.
Spammers
increasingly have used holidays such as Christmas
or Valentine's Day to take advantage of consumers
looking to get good deals on holiday-related purchases.
But in the absence of a commercial hook for April
Fool's Day, they're likely to use the appeal of jokes
to deliver malicious content. Barracuda warns that
bogus April Fool's messages may come in large-enough
quantities to flood company networks that don't have
up-to-date spam and virus filters.
Barracuda
says it plans to modify its spam rules to provide
temporary April Fool's protection for its customers.
But it also has commonsense suggestions for how companies
can protect their networks against the anticipated
onslaught. Among them: Exercise extra vigilance with
messages that may appear to be harmless; include the
terms above in E-mail subject and body-text filters
over the next several days; verify that E-mails were
sent from a valid domain; block IP addresses of known
spammers; make sure spam and virus filters are updated
with the latest definitions; and remind users to delete
messages received from E-mail addresses they don't
recognize.
What should you do to protect your self...
You can do your part by updating all your anti-viral
software and using caution when opening all e-mail
attachments to avoid becoming infected with a virus!!
If you feel you received an e-mail that has a virus
attached to it just delete it. NEVER OPEN IT...
GDIS, will block all incoming e-mails with the following
subject lines "great joke", "free jokes",
"prank", and "April fools"
to help avoid virus transfers.
If
you have any questions please feel free to contact our
office at 973.736.7687
