Lucky You, Microsoft has Sent You an Email! (Think Again).
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While you are working, your email program notifies you that you have a new email. Of course, as a true computer maniac you check the email you have just received. Surprised, you see that the email is from Microsoft and contains a newly released patch for Windows as an attachment. “Ah! They have great customer support,” you think. They even sent you the patch so that you don’t have to waste any time looking for it to install it. Wrong…THINK AGAIN!!
Introduction
As you might have suspected, in this article I will discuss the malicious attempts to trick people with faked emails claiming to originate from Microsoft, along with ways to identify these attempts and avoid them. I feel that in order for this article to be helpful it is best if I break the article into two parts to include all the necessary information on the subject.
The first part will provide mainly information. I believe that many of us have received hundreds of these emails trying to mislead us in an attempt to cause problems to our system. Thus, it’s a good idea to have in mind some practices for identifying malicious emails as well as learn Microsoft’s approach to the issue. In addition, I will make a brief introduction to digital signatures that should help with verifying the legality of any message.
In the second part of this article I will provide you with technical details on how to digitally sign and verify a digital signature using Outlook Express.
First I will talk about digital signatures, as it is a concept that we will need later on to cover Microsoft’s approach and to be able to identify faked emails. Then I will discuss the phenomenon of receiving bogus emails claiming to originate from Microsoft and best practices on how to recognize and avoid them. Finally, I will present three features provided by Windows in order to verify the integrity of system and driver files based on digital signatures.
Next: Digital signatures >>
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