This is one of the newer (although kinda stupid) virus spreaders I have seen this year. It sends a UPS notice to a random (in this case even non-existent) email address in your domain with an attachment of a virus disguised as an invoice to be printed out.

Thank goodness our company has invested on a security gateway called Borderware, which prevents malicious emails such as this from wreaking havoc on the network.

A common (and unfortunately, effective) technique for luring e-mail users into opening virus-launching attachments is to send messages that would appear to be relevant or important to many of their potential recipients. One way of accomplishing this feat is to make the virus-carrying messages appear to come from some type of business entity that many people commonly deal with, such as one of the large Internet auction or retailing sites, or a national bank (or other financial institution), or a major provider of a common service.
–Snopes.com

Rule is always to check the originating email address. In this case the sender is NOT UPS but “teld@grics.qc.ca”. That itself is a tell-tale sign that the email is fraudulent.

It’s not often that I get out of the cold confines of the Dev Room where I work. Last time I was out was to Cotabato, teaching the staff of an NGO how to use their high tech computer gear. That was in 2006.

This time it’s not going to be as far as Mindanao, but never the less adventurous. I’m heading off to Masbate for the introductory meetings leading to the two-week teaching stint that will start on the last week of November and will run into the first week of December.

I am going as Project Manager and Trainer for the Corporate Social Responsibility program of one of our clients at work. The startup project involves 13 computer systems to be spread out to four schools in the city of Masbate, and Municipalities of Baleno, Milagros and Balud. The packages each include a Lenovo K300 desktop system, an HP 5610 printer, an APC BackUPS E500 and a SmartBro USB Internet kit, complete with computer table and chair.

The package also includes Ate Vikki to teach the teachers how to use the system, and how to milk the internet for all its worth.

My first trip will consist of a plane ride from Manila to Legaspi, hired car from Legaspi to Pilar, a ferry ride from Pilar to Aroroy in Masbate, drive down to Baleno and then Masbate City to meet the two nearby schools representatives, determine who the training participants will be, and to help decide on the best places to position the computer sets. On the second day we will be heading off to the Municipalities of Milagros and Baleno to meet the representatives there, and then back to base in Aroroy, for the trip back home the next day.

On the 25th of November I will be back there with one of our tech guys to put in all 12 computers in the respective schools, and start the round of 2-day training sessions on the use of Windows Vista and basic MS Office.