2nd September 2004 - Microxchange September News Wire

News Wire from Microxchange – Bi-Monthly

September 2nd 2004
‘On this day in 1666 The Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane’

This newsletter is intended to be useful to anyone that uses a computer, and who is not a techie person! It is sent out bi-monthly, so that should give us plenty of scope for collecting useful bits of info for you to browse over.
In the unlikely event that you no longer want to receive them, please go to the bottom of the page and click on the unsubscribe button; this will remove you from all future issues. Please do not reply to this email as it is from an unmonitored mailbox.


Internet Scams;

• Phishing is the term coined by hackers who imitate legitimate companies in e-mails to entice people to share passwords or credit-card numbers. Recent victims include Charlotte's Bank of America, Best Buy and eBay, where people were directed to Web pages that looked nearly identical to the companies' sites.
Phishing has become the "hottest, and most troubling, new scam on the Internet."

Barclays Bank customers are falling victim to one of the latest phishing attacks.

http://scmagazine.com/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsDetails&newsUID=43f59c79-4bb1-4c25-bc7d-c6ba10e2f9d5&newsType=Latest%20News

• ….how do you avoid this;
If you receive an unexpected e-mail saying your account will be shut down unless you confirm your billing information, do not reply or click any links in the e-mail body.



Out on the Net;

• More than two thirds of email is now officially ‘spam’ or ‘UCE’ (unsolicited Commercial email)
Financial spam is close to overtaking pharmaceutical spam as the most common form of junk email.

• UNITED NATIONS AIMS TO THWART SPAM EPIDEMIC The United Nations has called for standard legislation around the world to make it easier to prosecute spammers. It has additionally called for co-operation between software companies to try and control the "modern day epidemic" of spam within two years.

• If you are using an old Microsoft operating system, you may find that it has reached it’s end of life period, the retirement dates are here http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-gb;LifeWin


• GET READY TO DEPLOY WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 2
Microsoft is pleased to announce that Windows(R) XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) with Advanced Security Technologies will be available free of charge from the Microsoft Download Centre this month. SP2 is a major security update for Windows XP customers. Unlike any other service pack, it will greatly enhance the functionality of the operating system. The pack delivers stronger security settings, increased manageability and improved and more secure browsing.
Download Windows XP SP2: (it is a large file, so do not do not use a standard dial up connection over a phone line to download)
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.aspx



• We have just finished fitting out a new medical practice called ‘Medenta’ on St. John’s Hill, Battersea, which is due to open in the next couple of weeks. It is specialising in private dental care for children along with a GP surgery; for anyone that’s looking for a new dentist or GP in SW11.

Tips

Sending an email in Microsoft Outlook can be done using the shortcut keys ‘ALT’ ‘S’ instead of the mouse

Instead of typing in ‘www’ in front of the website that you want to go to, just type in, say ‘microxchange’ and then hold down ‘ALT Gr’ and press the ‘Enter’ key; this will put the ‘www’ in and the ‘.com’ on the end.

If you are using outlook and always wondered how to back up your mail, you can download an ‘add-on’ to outlook that does this for you from here http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/officeupdate/CD010798351033.aspx

If you’re a small business with 5 users or more and want a hassle free solution for dealing with viruses and Spam mail; we recommend using ‘Sophos Small Business Suite’ http://www.sophos.com/products/small_business/

If you are a single user using a broadband connection we would recommend using Mcafee’s on line virus scanner, which requires no maintenance; www.mcafee.com