US-CERT is aware of public reports of a fraudulent email scam circulating via messages that falsely appear to be from the U.S. Federal Reserve. These email messages contain information about a phishing scam and links for users to follow to obtain additional information about the scam. If a user follows the links, they will be redirected to a malicious website where a PDF exploit is used to install malicious code on the affected system.

US-CERT encourages users to do the following to help mitigate the risks:

• Do not follow unsolicited links
• Use caution when visiting untrusted websites
• Install antivirus software and keep the virus signatures up to date.
• Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams (pdf) document for more information on avoiding email scams.
• Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information on social engineering attacks.

Relevant Url(s):

• http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-014.html
• http://blog.trendmicro.com/bogus-federal-reserve-sites-deliver-pdf-exploit/
• http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/emailscams_0905.pdf

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This entry is available at:

• http://www.us-cert.gov/current/index.html#u_s_federal_reserve_phishing

Dr. Barry Burns (the author and narrator in the video) discusses:

This stock market has a lot of people pretty scared.

• Is the current bear market unusual?
• Are stocks doing something they’ve never done before?
• How does the current stock market nose dive compare with bear markets of the past?

A little historical stock market research can reveal some very enlightening answers.

Will it give you comfort or make you more afraid?

Watch the video and decide for yourself, and then feel free to leave your comments below.

The sky is falling, there’s blood on the streets and you’re asking yourself is now the time to panic?

In response, David Jenyns put together a great video series that explains  how today’s global financial crisis happened, and what to do about it.

Due to youtube.com limits he had to cut the video into 5 pieces – watch the first one below:

The rest can be seen at:

• http://www.davidjenyns.com/trading/wall-streets-dead-cat-bounce-an-inevitable-recession/

- Enjoy!

Warren Buffett is one of the world’s most successful investors and was ranked by Forbes as the richest man in the world during the first half of 2008, with an estimated net worth of $62 billion.

With such amazing success Buffet obviously knows his stuff.

Definitely worth watching …

Side note: Berkshire Hathaway recently posted its 3rd consecutive quarterly loss. Interestingly Buffett doesn’t seem worried about the losses. It may be because he’s cashed up and ready to purchase some bargains.