CNet news is reporting today that a potentially serious security flaw has been found in the Trillian instant messaging client. Trillian is an instant messaging (IM) software which allows users to interact with people using many different IM services, such as AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger, using just one…

Gentle Reader Wolfjam has a novel idea: “It seems to me that if we were to make a few simple changes we could pretty well eliminate spam. First, let’s look at what the spammers have going for them… 1. They can remain anonymous by using trojans, domains that expire, etc….

According to an analyst at Radicati, and related reports by InformationWeek and the BBC, “user ignorance” and “bad behaviour” is the leading cause of spam. According to Marcel Nienhuis, an analyst with Radicati, “Major advancements in technology approaches that routinely achieve 90%-plus catch-rates are becoming widely available, yet no technology…

In a novel use of email campaigns, TiVo has emailed a group of journalists, offering them a special $200 off their new TiVo Humax DVR. Yet TiVo denies that it is trying to drum up journalistic support or – gasp – coverage for its newest TiVo DVR. Not that there’s…

Busting someone for smoking behind the school is usually a sweet moment for the principal. Unless, of course, the person being busted is the principal, and it’s a student who busted her!

It came from the Internet and, some say, is going to destroy modern civilization as we know it. No, it’s not spam. It’s Netspeak. Also known in some circles as “L33t speak”. Of course, not all people think that Netspeak or L33t is going to destroy the world, although many think that it is rotting the brain of the millions of young (and not so young) people who are “speaking” it. But no longer a passing fad, some experts say that L33t (or “l33tspeak”) netspeak is here to stay.

The State of Texas has sued VoIP provider Vonage for weaknesses in the VOIP 911 system. Note that the issue is not with Vonage itself, but with how 911 calls are handled (or not) by VoIP systems generally. The Texas Attorney General has sued Vonage claiming that they use deceptive…

Did you hear? IBM is spamming spammers! It’s all over the Internet, and tongues are a’wagging! Except, it ain’t so. IBM is not spamming spammers. Whether you think that spamming spammers is right or wrong, IBM ain’t doing it, and shame on CNN for getting it so wrong, and making…

GreenBorder is a new kind of protection for Internet Explorer (IE) and Outlook, and the folks over at GreenBorder claim that they “make IE safe to use. Really.” But what is GreenBorder? And what makes it different from all of the other anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-everything software which may not actually…

The Federal Election Commission is considering regulating and restricting online entities and activities which run to the political, including political blogs and other political content providers and sources. Let’s face it, anyone with a keyboard, a monitor, and a brain, is aware that online content providers, particularly bloggers, played a…

If you’ve been following the VoIP wars at all, you know that the latest craze is for ISPs and other providers to block the VoIP data of their competitors. They may do this because they themselves are offering VoIP services, or plan to, or because they own or have a…

VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) provider Vonage says that despite the FCC giving the smackdown to an ISP for blocking 3rd party VoIP services, Vonage’s VoIP calls are being blocked again, by both a cable operator, and a wireless broadband operator, although Vonage declined to name names in public. In…

Utah Governor Jim Huntsman has signed a new Internet pornography law into effect which requires Utah ISPs and other service providers to block pornographic websites upon a user’s request. And just to make sure that no service provider has to do the old “I’ll know it when I see it”…

Apple has released nine new patches today, designed to patch and repair several flaws in the standard OS X operating system and programs. One of the most critical of these is the flaw which allows phishers to take advantage of browsers which support the International Domain Name standard. Safari is…

Identity theft insurance? It’s obviously an idea whose time has come. In fact some would say that identity theft insurance is an idea whose time is long overdue. Just ask anyone whose personal data has recently been compromised by either the hacking of ChoicePoint’s data or the Scamming of Lexis…