Phishing", spam emails, and Antivirus2009

Phishing or Spam emails

Many of you have started receiving email from the “Kentucky Community & Technical College System Web Support Team” or with the subject line of “Password Change”. This is what is considered a “phishing” email. You can just delete these type of messages.

The term "phishing" refers to unsolicited emails that look like they're from a trusted company or institution. But they are not. These emails are really attempts at luring you into providing personal or sensitive account information on phony web sites. The information collected is later used to commit fraud.

If our office needs information from you, it will come directly from one of our staff members & not from an email address such as the “Kentucky Community & Technical College System Web Support Team” .

Here are a few ways to protect your identity online:

Never type your account information, username, password or any other personal information into a pop-up window, even if it looks legitimate. We never request account information through pop-up windows.
Never give your account information, username, password or any other personal information to a person whether it is through a web page or via email.
Do not respond to emails asking you to verify information or click on the links in them.
Be suspicious of grammatical or spelling errors. These are usually indications of a fraudulent message.

What is AntiVirus2009?

AntiVirus2009 is a malicious executable program that is commonly installed without user consent or knowledge. AntiVirus2009 can be installed by itself or bundled with other infections. AntiVirus2009 will often display frequent advertisements for bogus products or programs. The presence of AntiVirus2009 can cause sluggish system performance, system freezes and/or crashes. Eventual system failure and blue screen could also be caused by AntiVirus2009. AntiVirus2009 is not known to replicate itself at the time of this publication.

How do I prevent AntiVirus2009?

Once you have cleaned up AntiVirus2009, the main tip in order to prevent AntiVirus2009 and future malicious programs from returning is to stay suspicious of new websites you have never visited. Chances are you were tricked into downloading AntiVirus2009 when you thought it was something else.

More tips to prevent AntiVirus2009 from returning:

Update Windows often
Update Windows Security Settings
Turn on Firewall Protection
Update Anti-Spyware Software Frequently