Tirelessly keeping watch over the mean streets of the Internet! We\’re helping you with spam alerts, spyware warnings, spoof advisories, sleazeball sightings, security updates, system fixes - and, of course, product reviews - it\’s all part of the beat for the Net Patrol.
A critical security flaw in Firefox was disclosed yesterday, and patched today. Now that’s what I call quick service.
The flaw in Firefox was a buffer overflow flaw which allowed remote code execution, if exploited, meaning that people could access your system remotely, and run programs and do other nasty things on your computer, all […]
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.
A little-known but powerful clause in CAN-SPAM ensures that spammers cannot hide behind their affiliates to avoid CAN-SPAM liabilty. Prior to the passage of CAN-SPAM, people selling products which were being advertised by spam were often able to escape liability by saying “Hey, it wasn’t me who sent the email.” However, it […]
SpamItBack is a software which you can download, and which claims to allow you to create a message which you’d like to get across to those who spam you, and to “target the spammers websites, online ordering forms, or any personal spam e-mail addresses that have been discovered, with your message, and makes sure it […]
Does it seem like viruses, trojans, worms, and all of their ugly cousins are released more frequently, spread more easily, and do damage even more severe with each passing month? It’s not just you and there’s an explanation for this trend. What may surprise you is that it has nothing to do with […]
If there’s one thing at which our government excels, it’s obfuscating, obstructing, and even obliterating information, particularly when it doesn’t want John Q. Public to have access to that information. Even with the advent of the Freedom of Information Act, there’s a whole lot going on which we don’t know about. Some of which we […]
Phil Leigh’s “Inside Digital Media” is a place where, according to its site, “you can see and hear interviews with thought leaders in the Digital Media industries.”
And, indeed, that is just what they offer.
Of particular interest to Aunty was the November 18th interview with David Israelite, Chairman of the Task Force on Intellectual Property, for […]
Domain Keys is another flavour of e-mail sender authentication, along with SPF and Microsoft Sender I.D., designed to help ensure that e-mail that claims to be from Sender X is, in fact, from Sender X. Developed last year by Yahoo!, and deployed last month, its primary purpose in life is to help prevent the forging […]
Commerce One, a software company, has filed bankrupcty and is in the process of liquidating its assets. Among those assets are 39 patents for web services, many, if not all, of which are widely used today.
This is causing several industry leaders concern, as they have incorporated into their own software web protocols which, arguably, could […]
Computer Associates International has named Kazaa one of the top “spyware” programs, and in fact said that it posed a greater risk than any of the other top five programs on CAI’s spyware list, due to how popular it is.
Kazaa claims that it has been downloaded 214 million times.
In additional, CAI claims that Kazaa has […]
As Aunty reported to you all earlier this month here, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) is going on a lawsuit blitz, suing anyone they can get their hands on who has impermissibly downloaded even just one movie.
This week it appears that their wide-dragging net caught a big fish, as they were awarded 23.8 million dollars […]
For those of you who like your virus information fresh and al dente, you can’t beat the online virus information offered by Panda Software.
Panda not only provides you with the name of the virus, and date that it was discovered, but it gives you an instant reading as to the threat level of the virus […]
Now here’s a cool little gadget for the privacy freak who has everything.
Lexar has announced that beginning next week they will be selling a USB drive which reads your fingerprint, and converts the reading off the ridges into a password.
For subsequent use, if the fingerprint doesn’t fit, it will not admit.
The device does this by […]
From our “How not to win friends and influence people” department:
Derren Bibby, chief technologist at RFID manufacturer Noblestar, has described an American privacy advocacy group which has expressed concern over the proliferation of RFIDs into everyday life as “some kind of fringe group in America” and “the kind of people you need to watch out […]
The government of Israel is poised to consider competing proposals in its effort to outlaw spam.
The government itself is preparing a bill for consideration that would follow what is considered the European model of anti-spam legislation: commercial e-mail may be sent to people only if they have previously and explicitly requested it - i.e. they […]
The unpermitted and surreptitious use of legitimate Web sites by hackers to steal the passwords and other sensitive information of users visiting those sites is on the rise.
This is illustrated in blazing highlights by the brazen use of the Comedy Central Web site over the weekend, along with several other sites. In each instance, the […]
Cookies. Everyone has them. And everyone wants to know how to get rid of them. While for some browsers it’s fairly obvious and straight-forward, for others it’s not so much.
So, without further ado, here is a list of how to remove cookies from the top five non-IE browsers (for how to remove cookies under IE, […]
Written by Mickey C. of Whizardries:
Phishing is a big problem. This month’s Reader’s Digest includes an article with the clever title “Phishing: Don’t Take the Bait”. And their discussion forum has a small thread where a small number of people have opened up enough to admit falling for the connivings of phishers.
Here’s something truly frightening. Or amazing. Or maybe both.
Having just reported on the latest version of the Sober worm, Aunty got to wondering just how many worms there are out there. I’m talking about the kind which make their way into your computer, and do nasty things once there, not the people you used to […]
The newest version of the Sober worm, unleashed on the English- and German-speaking world on Friday, has an interesting twist.
The version aimed at Germans claims to contain an attachment featuring photos of an exotic dancer seeking employment. Specifically, the Sober-sent e-mail claims to include photos of an unclothed 21-year-old blond go-go dancer, looking for work.