Top Four ISPs Wrap Lawsuit Noose Around Spammer’s Necks
EarthLink, AOL, MSN, and Yahoo all filed lawsuits today against spammers in California, Virginia, and Washington. While it is unclear whether the timing was coordinated, who the heck cares? Good on ya, Aunty says! EarthLink’s lawsuit, filed under CAN-SPAM, is against “the Mortgage Lead Spammers” and “the Drug Spammers” (don’t…
The Once and Future King: Sanford Wallace Defends His Crown
Sanford Wallace, the original “Spam King” (sorry, Mr. Richter), is back in the news. Wallace is perhaps best known for the run-ins which he and his company, Cyberpromotions, had with AOL and Compuserve back in the 1990s. At that time both companies sued Wallace for spamming them, and AOL’s victory…
Help Trap Spammers in a Sticky Situation with Project Honeypot!
How would you like to help to track, trap, and catch spammers? What if Aunty told you that all you have to do is put some invisible email addresses up on your website? You’d do it then, wouldn’t you? “Sure, Aunty!” she can hear you saying, “Sign me right up!…
Is Your Computer Complicit in Online Extortion?
We all know about spam, spyware, viruses and phishing. But these pale by comparison with (and indeed are the supporting cast for) the mother of all Internet incursions: extortion of online businesses.
Microsoft Breathes New Life Into Sender I.D. – AOL on Resuscitatation Team
There is a new chapter in the debacle which started with Microsoft’s extending and embracing of SPF and its advocate, Meng Weng Wong, and which culiminated in the collapse of an empire (well, ok, of the IETF working group tasked with evaluating Sender I.D.) due to concerns about the scopes…
Company wants to end spam by reinventing the Internet
California company 2idi wants to end spam by reinventing the Internet. Or, more accurately, moving everyone from the Internet to a vast private intranet. Founded by husband and wife team Victor and Carol Grey, and partner Ben Labalme, 2idi’s i-name service is based on XRI (Extensible Resource Identifiers) and XDI…
Now Here’s a Novel Idea: Affini Makes Senders Pay to Send Email
Wow, talk about reinventing the square wheel! Startup Affini, Inc., of Saratoga, California, has launched a new email system with an integrated “pay to send to our users” feature.
Bad Enough it’s an Email Worm, Now MyDoom is Rude, Too
Not content to just wreak its normal wormly havoc, the latest version of MyDoom also taunts security firms and even disses rival NetSky worm author Sven Jaschan. According to Yahoo News, UK, the new version of the MyDoom worm includes plain text which reads (and I quote here) “we will…
Microsoft SMTP Security Flaw Affects the Masses
In the flurry of more than twenty security updates which Microsoft released last week, it was easy to overlook one particularly insidious hole: a flaw in SMTP affecting Windows XP, Windows Server, and Exchange Server. There are probably a few computers out there running one or the other of these…
Handful of Zombie Networks Responsible for All Phishing Attacks
Messaging security company CipherTrust has released the results of a study which they say indicates that fewer than five zombie networks are responsible for all phishing attacks worldwide. The report also indicates that the vast majority of phishing comes from the United States, with Korea a clear second, and with…
950,000 .info Domains Grabbed and Held by Registrar
Internet domain registrar eNom is in hot water for reportedly attempting to grab as many as 950,000 (that’s “nine hundred fifty thousand“) .info domain names for domains which already exist as .com domains. According to a report by Netcraft, eNom registered the domains through Sipence, which, interestingly enough, shares a…
Vote for Whomever You Want – But Don’t Take This Poll!
If you get email which encourages you to make a telephone call to express your support for John Kerry or George Bush, don’t do it without thinking twice and reading thrice! Spam which suggests that you make just such a call is making the rounds, but the 900 number provided…
Gaping Security Hole a Pain in the ASP
A gaping hole has just been discovered in Microsoft’s ASP.NET product, which allows access to password protected areas of a website just be altering the URL for access. According to an article published by Netcraft today, the issue involves “a bug in ASP.NET’s handling of URLs, known as “canonicalization.” If…
Make Your C*ck a Hammer (Spamusement Cartoon)
Make Your C*ck a Hammer Spamusement is, according to the Spamusement website, “Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!” Reprinted with permission of Steven Frank.
