Beware inspirational & joke emails - CyberCrooks using new PowerPoint exploits (no fix yet)

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Greetings from The VACM Team,

In This September 28, 2006 Issue:
---------------------------------------------------
- Beware inspirational & joke emails - CyberCrooks using new PowerPoint exploits (no fix yet)

You are free to forward this critical information to anyone
you wish as long as it is not modified in any way.

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***************************************************
* The Bottom Line...
***************************************************
Have you ever gotten one of those inspirational or joke emails
that plays a series of scenes and may also have music playing
in the background? Most of us have. These can be very dangerous
right now. Microsoft has issued warnings because they do not
yet have fixes available for these problems.

In plain English...
Cybercrooks are now using these new, as yet un-plugged
holes in PowerPoint to install malwares that allow them to
capture your private, financial and other data in order to
electronically steal your money or valuable data from you.

The bugs affect PowerPoint in Office 2000, Office XP and
Office 2003 on Windows and Mac OS X, said a spokesperson
from Symantec (the makers of Norton AntiVirus). Microsoft says
that the PowerPoint Viewer 2003 is not vulnerable.

Microsoft said that for an attack on a computer to happen,
a user must first open a malicious PowerPoint file attached
to an e-mail or otherwise provided to them by an attacker.

***************************************************
* What You Should Do
***************************************************
Microsoft is only offering advice at this point because they
do not yet have the problems corrected. They suggest that
until they fix these problems, users must use their best
judgement to protect themselves against the current PowerPoint
attacks. They advise that users should keep their antivirus
and antispyware software up-to-date (duh) and should not
be opening presentations files from untrusted sources.

[ Editor comment: remember that those self-running
"shows" that are multimedia inspirational messages or jokes
should be avoided, even if they were sent by someone you know and
trust. Why? Because it is very probable that your friend is
forwarding something to you that already covertly infected
their own computer. You should assume that these malwares
can slip into your systems undetected by your security softwares
until further notice.]

1. Do NOT "give up" on antivirus or antispyware software, and
    do NOT let your subscriptions expire. If you do, you will be
    on your way to some PC rebuild/repair costs in a hurry.
    If you do not have antiSpyware software yet and would like
    the #1 VACM rated product, click here to get a trial copy of
    today's #1AntiSpyware Software. VACM recommends
    CounterSpy not only because it protects against the
    largest number of spywares, but also because it works
    automatically, very much like your antivirus software works.

2. When Windows says "there are updates available for your computer",
    always allow them to be installed.

3. A good firewall may alert you of "rogue" software trying to send
    information from your computer out to the internet. Don't rely on
    the Windows Firewall... there are far better options. VACM
    recommends that you use only a top rated Firewall product.
    Our VACM testing and research is the reason why ZoneAlarm
    or ZoneAlarm Pro is installed on our clients systems and our
    own systems. You can get your copy of
    the #1 ZoneAlarm firewall by clicking here.

Best Regards,
Marc Deschenes, VACM Editor
The VACM Project at
Automated PC Solutions

*** Be sure to check out the appendix at the end of this alert
if you are having trouble booting your computer into "Safe Mode".
The process is all spelled out for you there.

Why should you be very
concerned about Spyware?

Learn how to avoid Identity Theft and Windows corruption in this
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How did they steal my Identity?

Why do I get so much SPAM ?

Why is your computer
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******** APPENDIX - Handy How-To Tips **********

* How To Boot into Safe Mode

Shut the computer down so that the power is off.

Turn the computer on, wait 1 second and begin pressing the F8 key
on the keyboard, once every second repeatedly. Do this until
the Windows Startup Menu appears. If you get a keyboard
error, press F1 to resume and then continue pressing the
F8 key once every second, or your PC may tell you to press another key for BIOS setup.

Select Safe Mode from the Windows Startup Menu, then press
the Enter key on the keyboard.

Windows will then boot into Safe Mode.
NOTE: This may take longer than a normal boot.

At the end of the boot process a dialog box will appear
informing you that Windows is in Safe Mode. Click OK on this dialog box.

Windows is now in Safe Mode.

If you miss hitting the F8 at the right time, Windows will boot
normally and you will not see the "Safe Mode" message. In this
case, start from the top of these instructions until you get the
boot menu screen where you can choose "Safe Mode". This can be
a little tricky the first time you do it.