Microsoft Updates Spam Emails Spread Malware

Posted by Jonh Tuesday, June 23, 2009 1 comments



Security researches from CA and Sophos warn of two malware distribution campaigns that try to push trojans as Microsoft security updates. One claims to offer a Conficker removal tool, while the other masquerades as an update for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express.

"Researchers at Microsoft have been working closely with Symantec, the creators of Norton antivirus, and have come up with a removal tool for the conflicker [sic.] virus," the malicious e-mails intercepted by CA read. "You are hereby immediately advised to download and run the removal tool from the link provided below to make sure you are not infected […]," they go on to advise.

The download link starts with windowsupdate.microsoft.com, but actually points to a .ru domain name. "The email comes from a certain Microsoft[dot]ssl[dot]com whose IP address is 38.100.66.185. This IP address originates from a server which is located in Texas and is not a Microsoft server," Rossano Ferraris, research engineer at CA Internet Security Business Unit, notes.

Visiting the link prompts the download of a file called remtool_conf.exe, that, when run, displays a Symantec EULA and offers to start scanning the computer. However, instead of performing any malware scan, the application contacts another host from where it downloads winupdate.exe, identified by CA as DelfInject CX. The fake removal tool is being detected as FakeScan A.

"Although there has been a decrease in the number of fake Microsoft update emails, the current fake emails are more sophisticated and use a very high profile social engineering technique to lure and trap people," Mr. Ferraris warns.

Meanwhile, Julie Yeates, malware analyst at antivirus vendor Sophos, describes a similarly themed campaign that targets users of the Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express email clients. "Microsoft has released an update for Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express. This update is critical and provides you with the latest version of the Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express and offers the highest levels of stability and security," the messages read.

The attached officexp-KB910721-FullFile-ENU.exe file is actually an installer for Troj/Spy-CU. "It does look plausible, the spelling and grammar are surprisingly correct, for malware authors, but, as ever, one should always be cautious concerning e-mail attachments," Ms. Yeates warns. Windows users are advised to download security fixes through Automatic Updates or from Microsoft's download website directly.

Archive a folder manually

Posted by Jonh Monday, June 22, 2009 0 comments

In Outlook, archiving is a way to back up or delete old items, such as e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, notes, posted items, and documents. AutoArchive backs up items for you automatically by using either the default settings or settings that you specify. However, sometimes you might not want to worry about all of those settings and just archive an individual folder manually.

Manually archive a folder.

1.On the Go menu, click Folder List.

2.Click the folder that you want to archive. In this procedure, the folder being archived is Home Networking.

3.On the File menu, click Archive.

4.Click one of the following options:

Archive all folders to their AutoArchive settings Allows you to use your AutoArchive settings to archive the Home Networking folder.

Archive this folder and all the subfolders Allows you to archive the Home Networking folder using the options available in the Archive dialog box.



5.In the Archive items older than list, choose a date from the date picker. In this example, items in the folder created before January 19, 2004 are archived.

6.To include items that you previously selected not to archive, select the Include items with "Do not AutoArchive" checked check box.

Note :To see if items have the Do not AutoArchive this item check box selected, open the item. On the File menu, click Properties. On the General tab, verify that the Do not AutoArchive this item check box is selected.

7.To archive the folder to a file other than the default Archive.pst file, click Browse, and then specify a different file name, such as Home Networking Archive.pst, and a location, such as My Documents.

Note: The default location for Archive.pst is C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\. A Personal Folders file (.pst) is an Outlook data file that stores items such as e-mail messages, contacts, calendar data, tasks, and notes.

8.Click OK.

The items in the folder are moved out of the folder and into the .pst file that you specified. To view the folder items again, open the .pst file.

Outlook is located on the same computer

Posted by Jonh Monday, June 8, 2009 0 comments

In this Article OE, WM or WLM contains all your messages and is located on the same machine as Outlook. It is assumed that Outlook has already been installed and configured with your mail account. Contact your mail administrator or ISP if you do not know the mail account settings. If you've already tried to configure Outlook before but were not successful, you'll have to start with a clean mail profile.
Migrate Mail

Don't use the Import function from within Outlook to migrate your mail. In many cases this will reset the "Received" time and date on a message. Instead, use the export function from with OE, WM or WLM.

1. Open Outlook.
2. Open up OE, WM or WLM and use File-> Export-> Messages… to export the messages to Outlook.
Confirm the dialog and select which folder you would like to export to Outlook.
3. Now all you have to do is wait. This could take quite a while depending on how big your message store in OE, WM or WLM is.

Migrate Contacts

To migrate your contacts, you first have to export it to a csv-file which you can then import into Outlook.
The way to export it defers slightly depending on whether you are using OE, WM or WLM.

Export Contacts Outlook Express

1. File-> Export-> Address Book…
2. Select; Text File (Comma Separated Values).
3. Press the Export button.
4. Select a location to store the export in and name you export file.
This can be on your Desktop folder for easy access. You can remove the file once everything has been imported into Outlook.
5. Press the Next button.
6. Select all the fields (make sure you scroll down to see all fields)
7. Press Finish. You'll get notified when the export is done.
8. Close the remaining open dialogs and continue to the Import Contacts section.

Export Contacts Windows Mail

1. File-> Export-> Windows Contacts…
2. Select; CSV (Comma Separated Values).
3. Press the Export button.
4. Select a location to store the export in and name you export file.
This can be on your Desktop folder for easy access. You can remove the file once everything has been imported into Outlook.
5. Press the Next button.
6. Select all the fields (make sure you scroll down to see all fields).
7. Press Finish. You'll get notified when the export is done.
8. Close the remaining open dialogs and continue to the Import Contacts section.

Export Contacts Windows Live Mail

1. Select the Contacts button in the left bottom section or press CTRL+SHIFT+C to bring up the Windows Live Contacts window.
2. File-> Export-> Comma Separated Values (.CSV)
3. Select a location to store the export in and name you export file.
This can be on your Desktop folder for easy access. You can remove the file once everything has been imported into Outlook.
4. Press the Next button.
5. Select all the fields (make sure you scroll down to see all fields).
6. Press Finish. You'll get notified when the export is done.
7. Close the remaining open dialogs and continue to the Import Contacts section.

Import Contacts Outlook

1. File-> Import and Export…
2. Select; Import from another program or file.
3. Press the Next button.
4. Select; Comma Separated Values (Windows).
5. Press the Next button.
6. Browse to the location of the previously exported csv-file.
7. Press the Next button.
8. Select your Contacts folder as the destination folder.
9. Press the Next button.
10.Press Finish.

View Microsoft Outlook Express 4,5 and 6 e-mail without having access to Outlook Express.

Got a need to view Microsoft Outlook Express 4, 5, or 6 e-mail without having access to Outlook Express? Want to view Windows Vista Mail and Windows Live mail message databases? You'll want MiTeC Mail Viewer. This free program lets you view those message stores, as well as message stores in any standalone .EML files, used by some e-mail programs.

Simply run MiTeC Mail Viewer, point it at the location of the file, and then select the folder you want to view. You'll then be able to browse through the e-mail, and save individual files as well as attachments. It's also nice that you can view not just the e-mail itself, but also the source code as well. This can come in handy for tracing suspicious e-mail or checking for phishing scams.

The program does have some problems, though. It didn't properly read HTML messages; I could decipher the content, but it didn't look like the original message. Aside from that, MiTeC Mail Viewer is free and simple, so worth a try if you need to view Outlook Express e-mail without having access to Outlook Express.

Get More at :

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/using/howto/oe/setup.mspx

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