New data security threats for April Fools 
(31/03/2009)
April Fool's day is known to be a time when new data security threats arise and old ones are reactivated. This year a much discussed topic has been the expected update of the Conficker network worm which is said to be the worst in the virus history, but it is yet to be seen what sort of surprises the update might bring along.
On April 1st two years ago, the ANI worm spread around the globe using an exploit found in Windows. On April 1st last year, the Storm worm spread in email messages that were sent using April Fool’s theme. This year - who knows. That is why computer users to be cautious when opening April Fool’s messages but also reminds that the most important tool to be used is common sense.
”The reason for data security threats to evolve around April Fool’s day is quite understandable”, says Olli-Pekka Niemi, vulnerability expert at Stonesoft. “The same thing happens around most public holidays or, for example, Valentine’s day. Even if people receive email messages from unknown addresses they tend to open the greetings more easily in hope for a juicy April Fool’s joke”.
As it is impossible to forecast the threats, Niemi emphasises the importance of prevention: "The most important thing is to remember the basics. Make sure that all programs are up-to-date, especially the security programs. In addition, common sense takes you far. Avoid surfing to unknown sites, opening messages or attachments from unknown addresses and in general behave according to your best knowledge”, Niemi reminds. “To most Internet users these things are common knowledge but as we’ve seen over the years, it never seems to hurt to remind about them from time to time.”
Related topics: Computer and PC Security Internet and Web security Virus, Worm, Email security, spyware and malware
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