Download a Movie, Go to Jail – Motion Picture Association Gets Tough on Piracy
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s true, then the Recording Industry Association of America should be very flattered, as the Motion Picture Assocation is following suit (pun intended). And certainly this will make a criminal lawyer or two happy. Undaunted by a recent Federal…
Hormel Ready to Take Back the Spam
The Hormel corporation, long tolerant of its trademark “spam” being used to mean junk email, has decided that they have had enough, and are ready to reclaim their rightful place as The Spam People. As part of their initiative, they will be launching a multi-part ad campaign in the UK,…
For Many, Blogs Were First Line of Information During the Election
Blogs became a front-running source of information during Tuesday’s election, as millions flocked to political blogs to get a taste of early exit poll numbers, available on blogs often hours before the more traditional news media doled them out. Nevermind that early can also mean unchecked, or in some cases…
Apple’s OS X and Open Source BSD Named Most Secure Operating Systems
British security firm Mi2g has, after an intensive year-long study, named Apple OS X and Open Source BSD as the most secure and resistant to security breach operating systems one can use in a 24/7 computing environment. The study of more than 235,000 computer systems world-wide included everything from personal…
Microsoft Says “IE URL Spoofability Not a Problem”
Dear Readers, As reported here by Aunty just days ago, there is a vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer which allows bad people to make you think that you are clicking on a link for one site, and then redirecting you to another site altogether. As an example, Aunty even spoofed…
Beware This Spam Scam!
Dear Gentle Readers, Aunty has just become aware of a brand new scam-by-spam. The spam tells readers that it has been sent by “an official anti-spam corporation”, that has determined that your email address has been included in several spam mailings, and that they “control those junk mail databases and…
Court Says ISPs Must Advise Customers Before Providing Their Information to Third Parties Under Subpoena
A U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania ruled last week that ISPs must put their customers on notice before turning customer information over to a subpoenaing party, in this case the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Because customers of ISPs are often not in the same jurisdiction as the ISP,…
Newly Discovered URL Spoofing Trick Affects I.E. and Safari
A newly discovered URL spoofing trick can affect anyone using I.E. versions up to and including 6.0.2800.1106, and Safari for Mac. (IE version 6.0.2900, Mozilla, and Firefox are not affected.) The way that it works is that it allows the display of one URL, while when clicked, the user is…
Coming to an ATM Near You: the Blue Screen of Death
Because Windows works so well, and is such a secure product, newer versions of the ATM will be run on Windows, instead of the standard OS/2. And, oh yes, they will be connected to the bank’s IP network.
You Can Still Vote with Paper, But Nobody is Going to Tell You That, and You’ll be Treated Like a Second Class Citizen
Ok, this isn’t really about the Internet, but it is about technology, and it’s important, and hey, it’s my site, so I’ll cry if I want to (oops, wrong song). Many, many counties in the country are going to, or indeed, have already gone, to electronic voting. A large number…
Bush Cheney Website Bars Access to Our Troops Overseas
The Washington Post is reporting that the Bush Cheney re-election website has barred access to visitors from outside the United States, after sustaining an online attack which took the website down for several hours. Boohoohoo..cry Aunty a river. When your site gets taken down, you don’t bar access to all…
New Version of Bagle Virus: Such a Cheery Little Email
Security experts are reporting that the newest version of the Bagle virus is being delivered in email packages with friendly subject lines like “Hello,”, “Thank you!”, and “Thanks :)”, with the actual payload files (the .exe files which do the dirty work) labelled as “joke” or, incongruously, “price”. Yet as…
AOL Sues Instant-Message Spammers (with Apologies to Dr. Seuss)
When you get a junk email, that’s what is known as spam, When you get a wanted email, that’s what is known as ham. But when the junk is instant messaged, we like to call it spim, And when the spammer can be found, we like to lawsuit him. When…
Voters Admit Their Vote Can Be Influenced by Spam
According to voters polled in a recent survey by Mail Frontier, 21% of those surveyed admitted that if they got an anti-Bush or anti-Kerry spam, it would influence their vote in Tuesday’s presidential election. Now mind you, this wasn’t a survey of 5 people in the break room. This was…
The Perfect Breach-Proof PC for that Clueless User
If you’re anything like Aunty, you’ve had more than your share of novice users in your organization who are, well, let’s call a spade a spade, human Internet security risks just waiting to be exploited. If you have a user or three in your organization who meets the description, then…
