trimMail's Email BattlesSpam, Security, Privacy, Spyware, Phishers, and Viruses From The Front Line.VA Data Theft: What Took So Long- July 14, 2006 Beginning in 2003, the Veterans Affairs (VA) employee hauled out data on CDs, DVDs, floppy disks and flash drive, apparently without permission, then copied it to his own external hard drive at home, without passwords or encryption. Most recently, he had added 26.5 million records from the Beneficiary Identification and Records Locator Subsystem database (BIRL), which includes social security numbers, full names, birth dates, service numbers, and combined degree of disability. Nobody knew or..http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/battles/security_aaebijhbbb_eb/ Lotus Haters Gang Up On Notes for Linux- July 13, 2006 IBM opened a fresh front in the desktop wars when it announced the 24 July 2006 release of Lotus Notes on Linux. By mating one of the industry's most mature, hardened, enterprise-level messaging, calendaring and group scheduling systems with the Linux desktop, IBM created a powerful new consideration for those weighing Windows vs. Linux deployment at the client level. You can now run Lotus Notes on darned near any operating system that strikes your fancy. Don't even think about trying that...http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/battles/group_aaebhadfhf_ia/ How Microsoft Can Protect You From The Malware Lurking Behind Google's Search Results- July 12, 2006 While searching for an installer for Firefox, Word Tracker guru Claudiu Spulber discovered that Google had actually indexed the executable itself. When he clicked the link in Google's search results, the Firefox program immediately commenced installation. After further examination, Spulber concluded, "This is possible because a link to a normal website was redirected automatically to an executable file." He found that Google isn't the only one. MSN and Yahoo index executables, too. Websense..http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/battles/virus_aaebgbjajc_je/ Europe Leads The World In Zombies- July 12, 2006 Ask a friend to name the world's top home for zombies, ie, computers hijacked by evil doers for nefarious purposes, like spamming, phishing and virus distribution. If your friend has been properly conditioned by the press, the blowback will likely be either the USA or China. After all, both fit the popular mindset. Zombies tend to dominate areas where unsophisticated users enjoy fast Internet connections. The US is home to teaming hordes of greedy old capitalists. And China's home to teeming..http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/battles/spam_aaebfdaich_if/ Microsoft Blacklist Strategy Swaps Accuracy For MS's Convenience- July 11, 2006 Want to make email easy on your mail servers Do it the Microsoft IT way. Reject messages from senders that show up on realtime block lists (a.k.a., blacklists, RBLs). Microsoft IT claims that using RBLs as their first line of defense results in killing 80% of all incoming messages. You gain other benefits, as well. The processing muscle required for a simple RBL lookup is nothing, so your gateway server can handle tons of messages. There is, however, a downside. Innocent users and...http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/battles/spam_aaebefcfac_cf/ Daily Exploit Release Reignites An Old Fire: What's A Real Good Guy Look Like- July 7, 2006 A security hacker who doesn't play well with Microsoft has decided to up the ante. So far this month, HD Moore has released a new chunk of browser-attack code every day. And he promises to continue releasing browser exploits through the rest of July. Moore calls it his Month of Browser Bugs Project. He screws up the browsers with fuzzing utilities that inject psuedo-random code streams to trigger browser failures. You can test your own browser on-line:CSSDIE pumps out bad style values for...http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/battles/security_aaebcjbjaj_bf/ Who's Afraid of the FBI Certainly Not Hackers.- July 6, 2006 Your company hires a consultant to do a bit of network maintenance. He keeps badgering you for access to this, so he can install a printer, or that to install a switch. Finally... to get him off your back, you give him your user name and password. Later, you discover that the creep used your password to download the entire organization's password file (multiple times)... then used an off-the-web hash-buster to own every user in the company... And you didn't even have Administrative...http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/battles/security_aaebbjbafc_aa/ Black Market Returns Prodigal VA Laptop While FBI Dissembles- July 5, 2006 The laptop stolen (along with names and Social Security numbers of 26.5 million veterans and active duty personnel) from a VA analyst's home is once again in government custody. But its route home doesn't exactly inspire confidence in our nation's law enforcers. The Red Tape Chronicles reports that a guy bought the laptop off the back of a pickup truck north of DC. Undoubtedly figuring he could buy one heckuva lot more laptops with the US$50,000 reward, he brokered a hand-over to the FBI...http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/battles/idtheft_aaebaahdig_de/ |