McAfee has produced a nice list that contains helpful warnings about online rip-offs over the holiday season.

Twelve Phishers phishing
Eleven Spammers spamming
Ten Bots a’ herding
Nine Virus writers coding
Eight Snoopers snooping
Seven Worms a’ spreading
Six Crackers cracking
Five Tro-jan Horses
Four Logic bombs
Three Software patches
Two Denials of Service
And a hacker at your back door!

Our thanks to the steering committee of the Information Security Awareness Forum for this Christmas treat.

Microsoft has reported that a vulnerability in the Internet Explorer web browser could allow remote code execution. For more information see their Security Advisory.

Get Safe Online has advice that that can help protect you:

• Browse the internet safely. This knowledge base article has links to advice about using Internet Explorer safely, avoiding criminal websites and using alternatives browsers such as Opera or Firefox.
• How do I protect my PC? This summary article has information that will help you protect your PC against viruses and other vulnerabilities.
• Get the latest Windows updates. This article explains how to make sure that your PC is automatically updated with the latest patches and software from Microsoft so that when they post a fix to this problem your computer will automatically download and install it.