Another part of my job here is squishing viruses, removing spyware, and educating users. We're better protected against worms, viruses, etc than most here: all of our "station" PCs have our centrally-managed antivirus software, and we check all incoming laptops for up-to-date antivirus programs. However I can't help but feel protective, both of our computers and our people, and also I want my friends to know what's what when they go back home and aren't behind our firewall any more. So I send out email from time to time when there's a new phishing scam, or a new worm vector like the IM bots, or a threat that is ahead of the AV updates like the WMF vulnerability. More than notifying people about any one threat I want to raise general awareness and change browsing/clicking/etc. habits.
I care about most of you folks too so here's the latest: "Blackworm" (AKA Grew, CME-24, Kama Sutra, Nyxem) is on a lot of PCs out there. It isn't doing anything yet but on Feb 3 it will attempt to delete files on your hard drive. Not so nice! Make sure that your antivirus definitions are up to date: all the standard AV programs have been detecting/cleaning this one since Jan 23d. More information online at http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?storyid=1067. Mac, LINUX, etc. users: yes you still get to be smug. Dang.
This is also a good opportunity for one of my favorite subjects: MAKE BACKUPS. If I had a nickel for every time I couldn't help a user because their only copy of an important file (document, report, scientific data) was on some sort of media that is now TOAST I would have a bunch more nickels than I want. I don't like nickels.
I won't go on and bore the geek types on the list but if it all makes your head hurt check out http://www.murkworks.net/~sarah/safety.html. This is a "basic info for normal people" handout that I made when it was my turn to do the weekly station Safety Meeting. I also made some brightly wrapped packages to hand out that had "You have a virus" messages inside but oddly enough people were suspicious and didn't want to accept them from me. Guess they've actually been reading my email messages!
Best to all,
-Sarah