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Another Trojan Email Is Doing The Rounds

Another Trojan Email popped into the spam basket today, this one entitled Facebook Password Reset Confirmation. The Email, purporting to be from Facebook, claims that the user’s Facebook password has been changed and informs them that the new password can be found in an attached document, which is a zip file.

You may receive a email claiming to be from Facebook Manager titled “Facebook Password Reset Confirmation. Important Message”. The message is a trick designed to fool recipients into installing a trojan on their computer.

Those who open the attached file, Facebook_password_3921.zip in this case, ostensibly to view their new password, will in fact be launching a copy of the Bredolab Trojan. Once downloaded, the virus gives the sender complete control of the target computer, allowing cyber criminals to potentially spy on users of the computer or use it to steal personal information or distribute more spam

As with any such dodgy emails, or unsolicited attachments, the best action is to delete the lot, and think no more about it.

Click here to find out more about the Bredolab Trojan on symantic.com.

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Mike Manisty on UK Government Radical Change

According to Mike Manisty, former CIO of the National Offender Management Service, and currently working for Gartner, “Reality in government IT is too often a triumph of procrastination and pedestrianisation over inspiration and aspiration!”

Mike has been an inspiration to TechCo management over many years, due to his unusual way of looking at the usual. He has been prepared to criticise the status quo, and challenge the excesses of government IT procurement and outsources contracts.

In a comment to a post on the new UK government IT Strategy, Mike goes on to say that “To achieve such a radical change will require the sacrifice of a number of sacred cows, including procurement policy, HR policy, security accreditation, sourcing contract overkill, project governance, budget delegation, just for starters.”

This is straight out of the TechCo recipe book, and we look forward to tackling the ingredient list; we love a challenge! We would particularly like to see procurement rules changed to allow smaller companies able to compete for IT work with a minimum of hassle. While we are at it, we would also like to see Agile concepts introduced in government application development – now that would be radical!

To read the full article, and Mike’s contribution click here to read Andrea DiMaio on the New UK IT Strategy

Mike Manisty was arguably the first person to undertake a solar-powered voyage upstream from Westminster to the navigable source of the Thames near Lechlade in Gloucestershire. He started on 24th June 2008 and completed the journey on 21st July 2008 at the pub near the Round House.

Click here for details of the Thames Solar Challenge by Mike Manisty
Mike is also on twitter, click here to follow