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CYBEREYE

Trust us, we're from the government

New spam uses DHS references to entice victims to malicious sites

If you can’t trust the government, whom can you trust?

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team warns of new spam messages that reference the Homeland Security Department to lure victims to malicious sites. “The attacks arrive via unsolicited e-mail messages that may contain subject lines related to DHS or other government activity,” the US-CERT warning states. “These messages may contain a link or attachment. If users click on this link or open the attachment, they may be infected with malicious code, including the Zeus Trojan.”

The old reliable rules apply here: Don’t follow Web links or open attachments in unsolicited e-mail messages and maintain up-to-date antivirus software. And always be suspicious — just because someone says he’s from the government doesn’t mean he’s here to help you.

About the Author

William Jackson is a senior writer of GCN and the author of the CyberEye blog.

Reader Comments

Mon, May 10, 2010 Sarge Charlotte, NC

If they say the above, RUN.

Fri, May 7, 2010 joco Florida

"just because someone says he’s from the government doesn’t mean he’s here to help you." What did you say?! Did I miss something? Since when does anyone from the government offer "help." If anything, this should be a strong clue to suspect the worst! Should we reserve trust in anything from our government and the lapdog media more than we would from a spammer sending us links infected with malicious codes?

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