Box of Meat

Jack Goldsmith in the New York Times: Defend America, One Laptop at a Time

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:03:58 -0600

Jack Goldsmith in the New York Times: Defend America, One Laptop at a Time: “…the private sector owns and controls most of the networks the government must protect. …the firms that build and run computer and communications networks focus on increasing profits, not protecting national security. They invest in levels of safety that satisfy their own purposes, and tend not to worry when they contribute to insecure networks that jeopardize national security. This is a classic market failure that only government leadership can correct. The tricky task is for the government to fix the problem in ways that do not stifle innovation or unduly hamper civil liberties.”

Exact Target: The Tipping Point Between Inbox and Spambox

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:03:26 -0600

Exact Target: The Tipping Point Between Inbox and Spambox:

“Many in our industry don’t help the matter at all because they prefer to create fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) around email delivery because they feel that obfuscation will serve them well and buy them customers. The outcome is confusion and distrust.”

Not sure why Chip didn’t also mention that most email marketing blogs (and twits) just repeat what other people in the industry said the day before.

Spam Wars: More on the URL Shorteners

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:03:19 -0600

Spam Wars: More on the URL Shorteners: “What a great way for a company to build an online brand presence—by hiding behind a URL shortener. WTF?”

ComputerWorld: Registrars under fire in domain disputes

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:02:59 -0600

ComputerWorld: Registrars under fire in domain disputes:

“Are domain registrars making money from cybersquatters at the expense of legitimate brands? If so, why isn’t ICANN stopping it?”

Perhaps because the fees trickle upwards, and thus ICANN is making money from this abusive behavior too?

Wired Threat Level: This Just In: Fake News Sites Are Great!

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:02:16 -0600

Wired Threat Level: This Just In: Fake News Sites Are Great!: “There’s something icky about the fake news ads showing up on genuine news sites like Salon, Slate and Huffington Post. … It turns out there’s a whole fake-media empire pushing the story of the massive profits to be made by gaming Google from home…. Consumers who have signed up for the $2 trial have reported being hit with surprise charges on their credit cards ranging from $70 to $80.”

Wired Threat Level: Filtering Companies Can’t Be Sued By Blacklisted Firms, Court Rules

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:04:12 -0600

Wired Threat Level: Filtering Companies Can’t Be Sued By Blacklisted Firms, Court Rules

Howard Rheingold on SFGate: Crap Detection 101

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:54:46 -0600

Howard Rheingold on SFGate: Crap Detection 101: ‘“Crap detection,” as Hemingway called it half a century ago, is more important than ever before, now that the automation of crapcasting has generated its own word: “spamming.” Unless a great many people learn the basics of online crap detection and begin applying their critical faculties en masse and very soon, I fear for the future of the Internet….’

New York Times: U.S. and Russia Differ on a Treaty for Cyberspace

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:54:51 -0600

New York Times: U.S. and Russia Differ on a Treaty for Cyberspace: “United States officials say the disagreement over approach has hindered international law enforcement cooperation, particularly given that a significant proportion of the attacks against American government targets are coming from China and Russia.”

BBC NEWS: Habitat sorry for Iran Tweeting

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:23:52 -0600

BBC NEWS: Habitat sorry for Iran Tweeting:

“Furniture store Habitat has apologised for causing offence after accusations it exploited unrest in Iran to drive online Twitter users to its products.

…When asked whether an outside firm had been responsible for the strategy their spokesman declined to give details.”

By refusing to out the marketing firm that made this mistake, Habitat is basically guaranteeing that another company will get caught up in the same mess again in the future.

Cisco: DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Grows Significantly

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:01:33 -0600

Cisco: DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Grows Significantly: some interesting graphs

Philadelphia Daily News: Can we stop those annoying political 'robocalls'? Should we?

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:29:51 -0600

Philadelphia Daily News: Can we stop those annoying political 'robocalls'? Should we?: “Are the calls effective? It’s hard to say. But nearly two-thirds of the respondents to a Pew survey reported that they hang up on robocalls without listening. Better than one of every 10 voters said that the calls made them angry.”

Netcraft: Faster Actions Needed Against Phishing Domains

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:32:47 -0600

Netcraft: Faster Actions Needed Against Phishing Domains:

“Criminals often register their own domain name to perform phishing attacks. Unlike the other common phishing site scenarios (including hacked servers, open redirects, and abuse of free webhosting), phishing sites that have their own domain name can be harder to remove, because the website owner and domain owner is the fraudster. Only the hosting and DNS providers and the domain registrar are able to take the site down and also likely to cooperate.”

(via fergdawg)

Al Iverson's Spam Resource: SORBS Information Roundup

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:02:36 -0600

Al Iverson's Spam Resource: SORBS Information Roundup: SORBS is shutting down. Al has compiled some info.

DarkReading: Relaunched Google Search Service Fingers Malware-Spreading Advertisers

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:30:52 -0600

DarkReading: Relaunched Google Search Service Fingers Malware-Spreading Advertisers: “Google is going after malware-spreading advertisers more aggressively with the quiet launch of a free service that lets Website owners run background checks on potential online advertisers.”

InternetNews: DoJ scores largest ever CAN-SPAM prosecution

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:57:54 -0600

InternetNews: DoJ scores largest ever CAN-SPAM prosecution:

Another early “spam king” may finally get what he deserves.

‘[Alan] Ralsky, 64, was charged with masterminding a systematic campaign to pepper unsuspecting consumers with messages containing “materially false and misleading information or omissions” promoting junk stocks for “U.S. companies owned and controlled by individuals in Hong Kong and China.”’

MX Logic: Spammers Poisoning Twitter Trending Topics to Spread Spam and Malware

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:13:48 -0600

MX Logic: Spammers Poisoning Twitter Trending Topics to Spread Spam and Malware: “Poisoning search results with content that leads unsuspecting users to spam or malware content is nothing new. We’ve been seeing abuse of Google’s PageRank system since early 2008…. We are now seeing something similar with Twitter….”

Read Write Web: Dear Wanna-bes, Your Twitter Stardom is Coming to an End

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:47:13 -0600

Read Write Web: Dear Wanna-bes, Your Twitter Stardom is Coming to an End: “Using third party software to systematically add a large number of social connections each day, then break those connections with anyone who doesn’t reciprocate, is a method used by some number of Twitter users to create an appearance of legitimacy for subsequent new connections. Twitter…said last night that such practices will now risk account suspension.”

CyberCrime & Doing Time: Spam Crisis in China

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:09:49 -0600

CyberCrime & Doing Time: Spam Crisis in China: ‘It is very normal that more than 1/3rd of the domain names we see each day in spam messages come from China. When one also considers the many “.com” and “.ru” domain names which are also hosted in China, the problem is much worse. More than half of all spam either uses domain names registered in China, is sent from computers in China, or uses computer in China to host their web pages.’

Hilton transactional differentiation FAIL

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:39:13 -0600

Image by dr.jd via Flickr

‘To unsubscribe from all marketing email from the Hilton Family of Hotels, please send an email with the subject line “Unsubscribe” to mailto:e_opt_out@hilton.com. Opting out from all Hilton Family marketing email will prevent you from receiving your monthly HHonors My Way Activity Statement.

Please allow up to 10 business days for processing opt-out requests.’

Yet on their web site, there’s a checkbox reading ‘Please do not send me marketing or promotional emails. (As an HHonors member, you will continue to receive your eStatements at preferred email address on file).’

Hotels: Don’t Charge Us For Internet Use (web-strategist.com)
Hilton HHonors: Fun Factor Zero (admonkey.org)

Consumerist: How To Protect Susceptible Relatives From Scams

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:21:48 -0600

Consumerist: How To Protect Susceptible Relatives From Scams:

Consumerist links to a couple of good articles about how & why people repeatedly fall for scams, with advice on what family members & friends can do about it.

(Raising awareness of these issues would be a great way for email marketers to offset some of the years of bad karma associated with your industry.)