Attention UCAN blog readers! There’s a nasty piece of malware going around masquerading as an official e-mail from UPS. Generally, we stay away from computer security issues, as there are far too many to keep track of and the experts do a much better job than we ever would be able to do. However, this sneaky malware hit a bit too close to home and almost snuck by our excellent tech guy.

The premise of the e-mail was that UPS was sending a notification that it wsa unable to deliver a package. Attached to the e-mail is a file deceptively named “invoice_N0866771.zip.” This file presumably contained information about the package. For those unfamiliar with “zip” files, “zip” is a way to compress one or several files into one neat little package. Unfortunately, in this case, the neat little package contained not a present, but a nasty piece of malware.

Inside the zip file was a Windows executable file called “InvoiceFile.exe.” Executable are different from data files as they can run as programs; as you can guess, this particular executable file had nothing to do with UPS or invoices.

Even worse, the zip file helped the executable file sneak through both a spam filter and a virus scanner. This goes to show that even with the best pieces of software, your common sense is still the best defense against malware and viruses. In this case, our tech guy checked the mail server sent the message and it was located in Korea. This started raising some red flags and sure enough, the invoice file turned out to be some nasty malware.

How can you stay safe from these types of attacks? Check out this great fact sheet from our sister organization Privacy Rights Clearninghouse. In addition to keeping your antivirus and spam filters up to date, use common sense. Don’t open e-mails from unknown senders. If you haven’t sent a package but get a message from UPS, some red flags should go up.

And in cases where the e-mail is from a known sender but sets off your spidey-senses, do a bit of research. Our tech guy read the headers of the e-mail to find out from where the e-mail was sent. E-mail headers contain information about the sender of the e-mail and the path the e-mail took to get to you. Check out this guide to reading headers. It may seem a bit complicated, but it is a great way to verify who sent the e-mail.