email warning!

I thought that this was common knowledge by now, but evidently not: Lisa got hit with it last week.

There is a trojan horse running around - through email - using subject lines such as "United Parcel Service Notification", "FedEx System Notification", etc. Other delivery services may be mentioned instead, for example DHL or the USPS.

For a couple of weeks I was receiving UPS notices several times each day. This week it is FedEx. [UPDATE: I just found "DHL Global" and DHL.S Global" items in my spam folder]

The trojan is contained within an attachment within the email, allegedly containing information about a pending delivery. Ironic, since it does deliver something (malware). The program disables your antivirus programs, runs processes and installs backdoors.

The botnet that ran via the infected computers has evidently been shut down, but the infection is still a pain in the ass because it does adversely affect your PC's security. Not terribly difficult to get rid of if you are patient and know what you are doing (and have System Restore Points), but not a job for the meek - and you need to act quickly. You have to edit the Registry to delete keys and find hidden backdoors. It was actually fun, but probably only because I was successful.