My junk mailbox includes a number of interesting offers and a newly popular one tries to entice me to see pictures and videos of actress Angelina Jolie in various states of undress. The URL in the spam email is linked to an executable file which IT security firm BitDefender has identified as Trojan malware.
A ScanSafe study released a few days ago indicated malware attacks increased 278% in the first half of 2008. Cybercriminals are getting creative, often using popular celebrities as bait, so resist the urge to click and pay attention to the WOT icons next to those links.
Firefox fans worldwide look to Mozilla's add-ons to pimp out their browser. Each month, the crème of the crop gets a place on the esteemed Mozilla recommended add-ons list. In July, WOT has been on that list, basking in the glow of Firefox 3 fever and welcoming a flood of new users. In fact, we expect over 300,000 downloads this month!
You can help us retain this desirable position by doing a few things right now.
Thank you Mozilla for selecting WOT for the recommended add-ons list and thank you WOT users for your continued support and enthusiasm.
We have released a minor update for the add-on, fixing some issues you have kindly reported to us. Here are the notable changes from version 20080519:
Version 20080714 is available for download from our website.
WOT users decided that Identity theft was the biggest online threat today, with spyware a close second.
Identity theft continues to top the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's annual report on consumer fraud complaints, accounting for 32% of complaints received in 2007.
The Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Center supports the finding. They report that 64% of fraud complaints were initiated over the Internet; almost half by email (phishing) in 2007. Electronic fund transfer-related identity theft was the most frequently reported type of identity theft bank fraud, with credit card fraud (23%) being the most common form of reported identity theft.
Check out our tips on how to protect yourself against Internet Fraud.
Once again, thanks to suggestions from our WOT users, we have made some improvements – this time on the WOT Internet Security scorecard.
You can now add or edit your ratings right on the scorecard. Click on Add/Edit rating to turn on the rating window. From there you can add or adjust your ratings, then hit Send to update the database. To turn off the window, click Close.
To see all the comments associated with a particular category, click on the category and the comments will automatically sort. For example, if you want to see all the comments for "useful, informative" click on the category indicator and all the comments will be sorted to the top.
Whoops, you accidentally agreed with a comment or flagged a comment that you didn't mean to. To remove the mistaken "I agree" or flag, click on the comment to expand it. Once expanded, click on the "I agree" or flag button, close the comment and your agreement or flag will be gone. A color clue to remember is when the button is gray, it means you have agreed. When it's blue, you have not agreed.
We hope you find these improvements useful. Thank you to the WOT users who made these suggestions, and please let us know further ways that we can improve WOT for you. Please help us by telling your friends and family about WOT and encouraging them to join the WOT community.