{"id":172,"date":"2005-06-16T13:53:36","date_gmt":"2005-06-16T18:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/stage\/?p=172"},"modified":"2017-06-23T16:04:05","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T23:04:05","slug":"spoofed-security-warning-from-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/spoofed-security-warning-from-microsoft\/","title":{"rendered":"Spoofed security warning from Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all have seen spoofed e-mails at times. For IT professionals these are relatively easy to pinpoint. Some bad guys are educated, others are not so lucky. Here’s an example of a spoofed e-mail from not a very bright individual. As you can tell by some of the red highlights I’ve made, there are too many hints in this e-mail that this is not a legitimate e-mail from Microsoft.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First of all, notice that the entire message is centered. In your entire life, have you ever seen a message from Microsoft that was centered? Here are some other dead giveaways.<\/p>\n

1. The word Microsoft is spelled MicroSoft<\/b> in two places but Microsoft<\/b> in the rest of the message.
\n2. The abbreviation MS<\/b> is used in several places. Microsoft never uses the abbreviation MS in their official communication.
\n3. Web site is mentioned twice in this e-mail and spelled incorrectly both times. Microsoft (and often other leading publishers too) uses the term Web site<\/b>, not website,<\/b> or web site<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, an average user doesn’t pay that close attention to the e-mails and may be fooled just by the fact that it resembles a legitimate e-mail. I keep on reminding my friends that Microsoft will not contact you via e-mail to give you security warnings. I think my friends are finally catching up on that but even if 1% of people are fooled by the bad guys, it can cause significant damage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all have seen spoofed e-mails at times. For IT professionals these are relatively easy to pinpoint. Some bad guys are educated, others are not so lucky. Here’s an example of a spoofed e-mail from not a very bright individual. As you can tell by some of the red highlights I’ve made, there are too […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exchange-outlook","category-security"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t