January 2009
31 posts
Freedom to Tinker: Three Flavors of Net Neutrality →
“Net Neutrality” has become a big, overblown term meaning different things to different people. Here Ed Felten attempts a high-level taxonomy; David Weinberger’s response is worth reading, too.
CIO: Microsoft Removes Fake Security Software from... →
“Windows users increasingly have been plagued with worthless security software as criminals bundle the money makers with other malware or seed significant users with waves of spam touting the programs.”
(via fergdawg)
Security and the Net: Prediction for 2009: more... →
DarkReading: CastleCops Shuts Down →
“The all-volunteer organization investigated phishing and malware scams, and was credited with successfully derailing many of these attacks and phishing sites.”
December 2008
42 posts
Washington Post Security Fix: PC Got a Virus?... →
“If you suspect or know your PC is infected with a virus, it’s probably wise to avoid purchasing anything using that computer until you’re sure the machine is clean. That includes additional anti-virus or security products.”
UPI: U.S. government vulnerable to Internet... →
‘…the most disturbing “cyber” threats are largely invisible to the general public, because they involve attacks on specialized networks used by the armed forces, healthcare professionals, air traffic controllers, financial institutions, public utilities and heavy industry.’
Feld Thoughts: Recommendation – Ignore All The... →
Food Bits: How SPAM became spam →
A clear explanation of the difference between Hormel’s SPAM product and email spam, written for the food processing industry.
Web Ink Now: Attention marketers: Time to stop... →
“I predict that in 2009 there will be a backlash…and either the Twitter community will need to self-police or the good people who run Twitter will need to make rules.”
Sounds a lot like what happened with email.
CyberCrime & Doing Time: More than 1 Million Ways... →
‘The current scam takes advantage of the thousands of websites which have a “URL redirect” on them. A URL redirection program allows the website owner to “send you” to another website, while keeping track of where you went. …The problem is that many of those sites actually allow other people to use their URL to redirect traffic as well.’
everything's better... →
Finding Dulcinea: Obama Supporters Sick of... →
‘Many members of Obama’s massive e-mail list are getting tired of regularly receiving solicitations for contributions—especially since the race was won more than a month ago. The focused campaign message once delivered by e-mails from the Obama team has fractured into what Politico calls a, “jumble of sometimes disparate-feeling fundraising pitches, YouTube videos and calls for...
SophosLabs: Lie culture: why spam works →
“Spammers prey on the vulnerable, the gullible, the charitable and the greedy, and mainstream advertising has made it easy for them.”
CircleID: ICANN Upgrades Domain Name Whois... →
The Irish Times: New law puts 'hefty price tag' on... →
“The regulations, which come into effect immediately, relate to all unsolicited mail sent by e-mail, text message or fax. Unsolicited mail for direct marketing purposes will be treated as an indictable offence…” in Ireland.
Sydney Morning Herald: Kiwis nail a Mr Big of the... →
“A New Zealand man living in Australia has agreed to pay fines totalling $92,715 after admitting his role in an international spam email operation said to be responsible for sending out billions of unsolicited emails in recent years.”
PSFK: Creative Review Supports JWT’s Urban Spam →
“…just because someone knows how to use some chalk, it doesn’t mean they can hit us with marketing messages anywhere they please.”
Detroit News: Hong Kong businessman pleads guilty... →
‘A Hong Kong businessman faces up to 78 months in prison after he pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal criminal charges in a massive Internet fraud scheme allegedly masterminded by Michigan “spam king” Alan Ralsky.’
New York Times: Ad Industry Bans Targeting People... →
“Advertising to people who are dead may also be acceptable,” according to the Network Advertising Initiative.
Giganews: "Worst. Top 10 List. Ever." ;-) 10... →
“While this list is nowhere near the complete history of Usenet’s contribution to the Internet, it is an interesting look at the origin of some very familiar technologies, cultural icons, and communities” — including spam, and the anti-spam community.
1 tag
biggest Internet Explorer flaw since PEBKAC
MetaFilter has a lively conversation about how “Users of the world’s most common web browser (good old IE!) have been advised to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.” This flaw exists in versions 5, 6, and 7.
“The flaw essentially originates from the improper handlings of DHTML data bindings due to a memory corruption error. Though the hackers...
EWeek: 5 Years After CAN-SPAM →
“Has it solved the spam problem? No, of course not. Has it helped? Yes, marginally.”
Security Fix: Digging Deeper Into the CheckFree... →
“A spokeswoman for Network Solutions, the…domain registrar that CheckFree used to register its Web site name, told Security Fix Wednesday that someone had used the correct credentials needed to access and make changes to CheckFree’s Web site records. Network Solutions stressed that the credentials were not stolen as a result of a breach of their system….”
Terry Zink's Anti-spam Blog: Infection rates by... →
Anti-spam vendors like to publish the amount of spam they see coming from various countries, but this may be the first time anyone’s published infection rates by country — which is much more interesting.
Terry writes “As a general rule, infection rates tend to be higher in developing locations than in developed locations (although the United States and France are among the worst...
EWeek: Spammers Sidestep SMTP →
“We often think of fixing malicious activity in terms of systemic solutions, but spammers have moved on to private systems from which to conduct their abuse, and this makes it harder to stop.”
It’s probably worth noting that the first true spammers (early & mid-1990s) sent through private systems. As always, they’ll move to wherever it’s easiest for them to get...
The Technology Liberation Front: The Most... →
“Several important titles were released in 2008 that offer interesting perspectives about the future of the Internet and the impact digital technologies are having on our lives, culture, and economy.”
Get Elastic: Should Retail Email Sell or Inform?... →
“Their audience responds better to relevant content than to a heavy-duty sales pitch.”
(via mailchimp)
CyberCrime & Doing Time: FTC Moves against Fake... →
InternetNews: Web 2.0 and Cloud Tech: A Spammers'... →
“…increasingly sophisticated spammers will begin leveraging the cloud, rich Internet applications (RIA) and social-networking and content-sharing technologies in 2009….”
CNET: Michigan State to student: Political e-mail... →
Actually, what Michigan State appears to be saying is that their anti-spam policy is content-neutral; there’s no loophole for specific types of messages (nor should there be.)
(via spamresource)
Valuable Offers from Our Treasured Marketing...
John Levine and Laura Atkins weigh in on the ever-popular marketing tactic of encouraging (or forcing) people to sign up for partners’ ads too.
Mashable: Why Social Network Spam Matters →
“A new study…confirms through numbers what many of us have been noticing anecdotally: social networking spam is on the rise, and most users are concerned about it.”
Deliverability.com: TV Gets New Email Marketing... →
“In my eyes, email in its current form is a poor thing to try to host media of this magnitude. It never was intended to do this? Also, can we FIRST fix the current issues with email before trying to add another fun problem to it?”
Jerusalem Post: New 'spam' law is strict →
EmailKarma: Anti-Phishing Filters and the... →
how you format your links affects whether they’ll appear suspicious to phishing filters
eddie.com: Administering the Voight-Kampff Test to... →
Eddie asks a twitter reply spammer the series of questions made famous by the movie Blade Runner, and discovers that it’s actually a human. Sort of.
Personally, I’d rather talk to a replicant.
Word to the Wise: But that’s what spammers do! →
Laura’s client asks “We know we’re going to get complaints, probably hit spamtraps and generally have problems with the first few sends of the list. We want to do this without harming our reputation.”
Email Marketing Reports: What you say...what you... →
“If you have to justify yourself, then chances are you haven’t got the right kind of permission from people on your list.”
CircleID: The Web's Benevolent Dictators →
“How do we create viable grassroots, distributed alternatives to Google and Twitter so that if they get shut down, or turn evil, we’re not left in the lurch—or in jail? …how do we succeed in breaking our dependence on the benevolent dictators? Or how can we help at least some of our web and telecoms dictators evolve from being monarchies to something more accountable,...
davefleet.com: Twitter Spam Doesn’t Work →
“There’s a big difference between media like email, where spammers can push their messages out to millions of people and let sheer numbers do their work, and Twitter, where you need people to opt-in to your posts and where they can answer back.”
The Star: Canada emerges as haven for spam →
“The fact that organizations are forced to use United States laws and courts to deal with Canadian spammers points to an inconvenient truth – Canadian antispam laws are woefully inadequate and we are rapidly emerging as a haven for spammers eager exploit the weak legal framework.”
International Herald Tribune: Israel cracks down... →
“Last June, a new law gave solicitors six months to ask prospective clients if they wanted to receive unsolicited messages. The deadline expired Monday.”