Here at Lifehacker we’re pretty keen on e-cards as a form of Christmas greeting, but it’s worth reminding people that holiday cheer is also often utilised as a means of distributing spam and malware. AVG Technologies (whose free security software is amongst the top five anti-virus options favoured by Lifehacker readers) estimates that 500 million electronic cards will be sent this season, and its polling suggests that 74% of people will unthinkingly open e-cards. It’s always tempting to open what looks like a message from family, but if your Brisbane-born mother has apparently described herself as “Mom”, it’s a safe bet you’re dealing with an intruder. If you follow sensible security practices — never opening attachments, deleting anything that looks even mildly unfamiliar, keeping your system patched, and running reputable security software — you shouldn’t run into trouble. It’s also worth reminding friends and family of the same rules, lest you spend the holidays fixing everyone else’s compromised PC.
Sydney2K
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 11:13 AMI used to send out e-cards by the dozen, but the malware and spyware spam mail infestation killed that off. I now never open any e-greeting card. The spammers basically killed off the e-greeting card industry.
Yapeen2
Thursday, December 25, 2008 at 12:23 PMOne way is to look at large reputable institutions for free cards. One example I have used is the British Library; another the V&A. There must be more …