2005 May

You may have heard about the cities which are coming online and offering free wifi on a city-wide (municipal) basis. What you probably haven’t heard about is the fights which often go on behind the scenes to keep you, the good citizens of these cities, from having access to municipal wifi.

Talk about spyware versus spyware. Authorities in Isreal have arrested dozens of people, including high level executives of multinational corporations, in what increasingly is developing into the Internet Trojan spyware custerfluck of the year. Only on the Internet can a Trojan horse disgorge its contents in several places at once, and not only […]

The Federal government is arguing that despite rulings by the court to the contrary, that under the Patriot Act they are, or at least should be, allowed to demand customer records and information from ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in secret, and without a court order.

Stanford University has joined that special inner circle - no, not the top tier schools - those which have had their computer systems hacked and data compromised.

Groups and individuals being dubbed as Internet vigilantes are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to phishers and their phishy sites, and are using their hacking powers for good (they would argue) by hacking into phishing sites and defacing and mutilating them in some fashion so as to make clear that they […]

As many of Aunty’s regular readers know, Paris Hilton’s Sidekick was hacked, and the data was posted to the Internet, several months ago. And they also know that one Nicholas Lee Jacobsen plead guilty to the T-Mobile hacking which is assumed to have lead to Miss Hilton’s Sidekick account being hacked.

In the close future, you could end up signing on for every Web site you need just once by declaring your identity. “My - Dee - Me,” allows you to self indetify your name and eliminates the need for any central registry or authentication service.
What this does, in effect, is establish a […]

Tens of thousands of users woke up today to find German hate propoganda spam in their inbox. Piggybacking on the recent increase in activity of the Sober worm, the German hate spam is thought to take advantage of the trail left by the Sober worm, but is not a worm itself. Instead it […]

It’s always interesting to look at your Web logs to analyze the search terms which people have plugged in to the search engines just prior to finding your Web site and to see what sorts of strange paths people have taken to find you. Usually the search terms are fairly pedestrian, but every so […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that they are seeking comments on several aspects of CAN-SPAM which they will be clarifying or modifying.

It’s bad enough that military and government computer systems at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland, the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory were hacked and compromised.

Spam Wars author Danny Goodman doesn’t just write about spam wars - he’s actively engaged in the trenches. Here, guest author Danny Goodman, fresh from the ordeal, tells us about taking aim at a phisher just last night:

Pity poor Brian Cartmell, CEO of SpamArrest. He has a tough job: going hat in hand from site to site saying “please take down the bad things you said about us.”

As many of Aunty’s readers know, the State of Texas sued Vonage recently for, they claimed, failing to provide adequate instructions for signing up for 911 emergency telephone services. Hogwash!

Remember the Florida veterinarian who caught the wardriver jacked into his wireless Internet access outside his home? Has Aunty impressed upon you strongly enough yet that wardriving is serious, and wardriving can happen to you?

Are you “Internet-illiterate?” If so, according to a new report, you could actually hinder your children or any future children you may have by your Internet illiteracy. The “children of Internet illiterate parents” report (Aunty’s name, not theirs), was researched by academics at the London School of Economics, and found that “many parents […]

Download.com, a division of CNet Networks, has announced that it has purged its extensive library of downloadable software of all programs which contained adware, and that it will strictly enforce its new policy of zero tolerance for such adware-infested programs.

GlassLock SpyGuard. It sounds like your special spy name from one of those Internet name generators, doesn’t it? But it’s actually a real product. Remember when Aunty told you about the DefendAir paint you could use to paint your house, or at least a room, to keep your wifi from being hijacked […]