Canada Day 2014
It’s Canada Day 2014 and most Canadians have probably noticed their email inboxes filling up with requests to confirm their subscriptions to several mailing lists.
This is of course because the new anti-spam legislation comes in effect today, restricting the sending of unsolicited emails to Canadians.
I’ve personally taken advantage of several offers to confirm my subscriptions in exchange for contest entries. But I have also used the opportunity to unsubscribe to the mailings lists I no longer read regularly and recommend that you do so as well, as soon as possible.
You should note that this legislation is not limited to commercial email but extends to “malware, spyware, address harvesting, and false or misleading representations involving the use of any means of telecommunications, short message services (SMS), social networking, websites, URLs and other locators, applications, blogs, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and any other current or future Internet and wireless telecommunication threats prohibited by Canada’s anti-spam legislation.”
You can also help stop some of this activity by securing your Wi-fi with a password and by updating your antivirus & firewall software regularly.
Security Flaw Found In IE
Microsoft is currently working on fixing a bug that has been found in versions 6 to 11 of Internet Explorer and the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team has issued a press release asking individuals to use alternative browsers until the bug is fixed :
Click here to download Firefox
This bug is exploited by malicious web sites so IE users can continue to use their browsers by avoiding potentially dangerous sites. XP Users should use alternative browsers.
Urgent Security Warning
Skype users be warned : Do not open any message whose subject line is “lol is this your new profile pic?” !
This message directs individuals to a malware infected file, using an URL shortener services like goo.gl, that in turn infects an individual’s computers.
This malware collects user names and passwords for numerous sites and services including Facebook, Twitter, Godaddy, Paypal, eBay, Netflix and Yahoo. It may also lock your system and send unsolicited messages to individuals in your contact lists, asking your contacts to download the infected file(s) to their computers.
Skype advises their users to refrain from clicking “on suspicious or unusual files and links, even if it’s coming from people you know”. They also suggest their users update their software, including their anti-virus software.