April Fools: Cybercrooks' Pranks Are No Joke

The April 1 eruption of spyware, scamware, malware links and other bad stuff is upon us again. Are you and your company ready?Happens every spring: the flowers start to emerge, the calendar turns another month -- and the crooks and spammers pump up the volume of spyware, spam, malware-link loaded mail.

While this year's April 1 doesn't come with any warnings as large as last year's thankfully unfulfilled Conficker hype, that's no reason to let your guard down.

Yet lowered guards -- or heightened gullibility, which may be the same thing -- are precisely what the crooks are counting on, confident that their come-ons and jokey subj. lines and irresistible links will blend in with the increased volume of harmless April Fools Internet pranks and hoaxes.

Time to tighten your mail filters, and get the word out to your people:

Don't open unsolicited e-mail or fwds.

Don't forward fwds.

Don't follow unfamiliar links.

Don't fall for rogue anti-virus scareware.

Don't respond instantly to friend requests on Facebook or follow request on Twitter.

In fact, when it comes to the increased volume of junk showing up along with April, that's the best and simplest advice of all:

Don't.