I received an email from the Microsoft Outlook account manager. You said they went the email while testing my pop3 account. Is this a virus? I can't see why Microsoft would sent me an email, or test my pop3 settings as I am not with them.
I received an email from the Microsoft Outlook account manager. It said they sent the email while testing my pop3 account. Is this a virus? I can't see why Microsoft would sent me an email, or test my pop3 settings as I am not with them.
I have read that there are many emails around with fake Microsoft addresses, and that Microsoft do not email people. I deleted it.
Probably not. When you set up your email account in Outlook you probably hit the "Test Settings" button. This creates a test message, sends it to your SMTP server, then gets it from your POP server.
They didn't - you did. Notice that the message is from you? I just tried it and here's the message:
Subject: Microsoft Outlook Test Message
Content: This is an e-mail message sent automatically by Microsoft Outlook's Account Manager while testing the settings for your POP3 account.
MICROSOFT NEVER SEND E-MAILS. At least the 'we priduce windows' as opposed to 'we attempt to run what we pretend to be an internet service provision busimness (MSN.com)'
I think you mean Microsoft never send emails containing patches. I have plenty of genuine emails from Microsoft notifying me of their vulnerabilities and the patches available - however, the patches themselves are never sent via email.
Probably not, but there have been a number of mails purporting to be from Microsoft recently which even have correct URLs and links for support. They claim to be software updates but actually have virus or trojan horse attachments. Microsoft does not distribute software updates by email.
Over the weekend I received an email purporting to be from PayPal asking me to verify my account details. This again looked genuine and had a URL to a web site inviting one to fill in personal data including bank account and credit card details. Some simple checking revealed that the site was in Korea.
Looking at mail headers for the originating domains or addresses or relays used along the way is normally revealing. These can be spoofed, but the majority of these scam messages are not that well done.
It is important to use a virus scanner and maintain the subscription. Again this is not 100% foolproof but is another layer of protection.
Good practice is to use multiple means of protection, ideally from different vendors.
If you have any form of "broadband" or always on connection, you have the additional threat of attacks via the internet. This is possible on dial up connections but statistically not as likely since connection periods are shorter and addresses tend to change for each connection, making a concerted attack less likely.
Unfortunately a lot of people with "broadband" connections do not have firewalls or even know about the need or have the skills to implement. These are very easy sitting ducks to target for the hacker.
Using software firewalls on Microsoft "operating systems" is better than nothing, but not much better than nothing and can lead to a sense of false security. Again, the ideal is to use multiple layers of protection from different vendors.
possibly, but I wouldn't touch a firewall thatcame from an ISP.
Roll yer own. Therare planty of NAT style routers that go on broadband systems and give you 95% protection or better for under 100 squids, and allow several; PC's to use the line.
Run a virus detector on the PC and thats 99% of what you need under YOUR control.
I run beghind a cisco ISDN router, for historical reasons. My PC doesn't even HAVE a publically accesible IP address, and can't be hacked withot first hacking the Cisco. Which might be possible, but I couldn't do it.
There are starting to be, although for home users I think that this is some clever marketing since some operators limit ports anyway to stop you running servers and using more network bandwidth than they would like.
In the business sector there are plenty of people offering managed firewall services with CPE that they operate for the customer.
So are you saying that it is a virus? From what the OP has (badly) copied & pasted, I'd say it isn't. It's just the message that Outlook creates to test email account settings.
I did a test and it is an email Outlook sends to you (from yourself to yourself). There is nothing to indicate that it will do that though. Also there are numerous emails around with Microsoft addresses.
If on broadband, cheap routers are around (£50 from PC World?). Put one of these on and the IP addresses behind it are invisible to the outside world, then have your PC on one of these addresses. Then have a software firewall on your PC too. If on broadband a router is imperative. Easy to set up.
You are referring to NAT (Network Address Translation). Yes, this does add quite a lot to protecting a small network, but the firmware in low end routers is limited and some products can be compromised quite easily. However, this is better than nothing and does raise the bar to casual hackers.
On Windows that is almost pointless because the underlying "OS" is unstable and vulnerable for networking. An intermediate firewall running Linux or xBSD is more solid.
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