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Cover Story: The Changing Threat Landscape
Currency Trivia Quiz
What's New In Virtualization
Getting It All Done
Job Hunt Humor
Moose Logic Coming Events
September Recommended Reading

(Moose Views is a monthly newsletter prepared by Moose Logic to bring you information and tips on maintaining a trouble-free network)

You may have heard that the threat landscape out there in Internet-land has changed considerably over the last year or two, but you may be surprised to know how much it has changed.

According to Rowan Trollope, Symantec’s senior vice president for consumer business, “In 2008, most new infections occurred while people were surfing the Web.”

The primary threat vector is no longer the infected e-mail attachment. In fact, I can’t remember the last time my MooseGuard^TM spam/virus filter blocked an actual virus-laden e-mail message. Instead, the primary threat vector is the malware-laden Web site, and the spam messages that try to entice your users to click through to one.

In the last 30 days, for the mooselogic.com domain alone, our MooseGuard^TM filter has blocked or quarantined 81,235 e-mail messages, of which only 2,349 actually contained a virus. That’s slightly under 3% of the blocked and quarantined messages, and under 1% of the total messages we received.

Your humble author checks his quarantine on a weekly basis. The last few times I’ve checked it I’ve had over 800 messages in quarantine that I had to try to review to make sure I didn’t miss the one or two important ones that might have been quarantined by mistake!

Last month, Symantec released its list of the “dirtiest” 100 Web sites—and we’re not talking “dirty” as in adult content, we’re talking “dirty” as in sites that will try to infect you with malware if you visit them.

75 of these sites had been distributing malware for more than six months at the time the report was released. The sites averaged 18,000 threats each, with 40 of them having more than 20,000 threats. Some Web sites had more than 50,000 threats. Aladel.net had over 70,000.

About half of these 100 sites were sites with adult content...but that also means that half did not have any adult content. According to the report, which you can view at http://safeweb.norton.com/dirtysites, “...other Dirtiest sites run the gamut of subject matter, including sites dedicated to deer hunting, catering, figure skating, legal services, and buying electronics.”

Just visiting some of these sites could put you at risk of system infection, even if you didn’t explicitly download any files or click on any links on the site.

So what’s a network administrator to do?

First of all, educate your users. I know—sometimes that feels like you’re trying to push a piece of wet spaghetti uphill, but the first and best defense against infection is a user who doesn’t click through to the infected site. Make them aware of the most common “phishing” ploys, and show them how to check the actual URL of a link before they click on it, and how to interpret it.

Second, make sure that your local anti-virus software is up to date. If you’re one of our MooseGuardTM anti-virus customers, you don’t have to worry about that, because we worry about it for you.

Third, make sure that critical patches and fixes are applied to your systems—and I’m not talking about just the Operating System, I’m also talking about things like Adobe’s PDF Writer and flash players.

Fourth, implement a “defense-in-depth” scheme. The best place to block spam is before it consumes your bandwidth and touches your mail server. That’s what our MooseGuard^TM spam/virus filtering service does. You may also want to consider spam and virus filtering at the network firewall (Watchguard products offer this option). We can also help you configure the Intelligent Message Filter in Microsoft Exchange, as well as with configuring your Exchange server to check incoming messages against publicly-available “black lists.”

Multiple layers of filtering will help to remove the temptation to click through to a “dirty” Web site, and multiple layers of anti-malware software will help to protect your systems if something slips through.

But the most important thing to remember is that we can no longer simply install anti-virus software on our systems and assume that we’re protected. The bad guys know that nearly everyone has anti-virus software installed these days. That’s why the tactics have shifted to these new attack vectors.

Surf safely, and teach your users to do the same!

Since the subject of money and the economy is on everyone's mind these days, let's see how much you know about our nation's currency.

1. True or False: It would take more than 14 million notes to make a one-mile stack of U.S. currency.
2. What is our "paper" currency made from?
3. What year was the dollar officially adopted as our nation's unit of currency?
4. The U.S. Secret Service was created during what war to fight counterfeiting?
5. In what year did the words "In God We Trust" first appear on paper currency?
6. True or False: The largest note produced today is the $100 bill.
7. What percentage of notes produced each year are $1 bills?
8. How many double folds (forward and backward) are needed to tear a note?
9. The average $100 bill will last about seven years. How long does a $1 bill last?
10. How many notes are produced each day by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing?

(Answers Below)

Do you find yourself constantly putting things off? You are not alone! September 6th was Fight Procrastination Day. (You’ll note the irony in our telling you about it after the fact.) Everyone suffers from procrastination at one time or another. For some, it is an ongoing battle. But there are ways to jump start your to-do list. Keep these tips in mind next time you are feeling a bit sluggish.

Break tasks down into small tasks. Saying you need to organize your kitchen cabinets can seem like a huge job. But organizing just your silverware drawer may not be so bad. For every big job, make a list of all the parts that need to be done and tackle them one by one. Pretty soon, your big job will be completed without feeling so big.

Know your weaknesses. Take a moment to think about your worst source of procrastination. Is it doing the laundry, making sales calls, planning for dinner? Make this job your number one priority of the day. By accomplishing this task first, you will free yourself up to move forward without it hanging over your head.

Do you have 15 minutes to spare? Even in the busiest schedule, most people can find 15 minutes a day. Budget this short time to tackling a project that you've really wanted to get done, but never seem to get to. It seems like a short time, but it is amazing what can be accomplished in this short time. You may find that you spend even longer working on your project once you get started.

Reward yourself for a job well done. Plan something nice for yourself--a movie, a special meal, a weekend away--but only do this if the project you've been putting off gets done. Share your goals with someone close to you, and you will get encouragement along the way.

Cure the problem. Recognize that while procrastination may be caused by simple laziness or boredom, often it is a sense of fear that keeps us from getting started. You may also feel overwhelmed or stressed in general. Take some time to examine whether eliminating some other tasks might help you feel less pressured. If it is fear that is stopping you, working through that anxiety first will help you prepare to get the job done. Most importantly, be ready to admit if the job you are trying to accomplish is really necessary after all. You may find that it is something you'd like to get done, but that doesn't really need to be finished. Giving yourself a break may be the best way to get motivated in the long run, as you will be doing projects when you are more interested in them.

Reaching the end of a job interview, the HR person asked a young engineer who was fresh out of college, “What starting salary were you thinking about?”

The engineer said, “In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package.”

The interviewer said, “Well, what would you say to a package that included 5 weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every two years—say a red BMW?”

The engineer sat up straight and said, “Wow! Are you kidding?”

The interviewer replied, “Yeah, but you started it.”

1. True
2. It is actually a fabric consisting of 25% linen and 75% cotton.
3. 1785.
4. The Civil War.
5. 1963.
6. True.
7. 45%.
8. About 4,000 folds.
9. 21 months.
10. 38 million.

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