Michael Gracie

A spam group was sending out emails directing recipients to a website advertising “lonely housewives” looking for companionship. The sexual solicitation issue notwithstanding, what the heck does the FTC have against lonely housewives? I don’t know, but the operation has been shut down at their bequest anyway.

America workers seem a bit clueless about phishing attacks, according to a recent Websense survey.

More than 45% of American workers have clicked on a lure link, and IT managers are worried sick about it. Roughly 2/3rds of all workers had never heard the word “phishing” and/or knew what it meant. And those same IT managers say more than 80% of the employees they service have received some sort of phishing lure.
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A few days back, rumors emerged that Apple may be considering Intel chips for Macs. No sooner mentioned, then folks were putting their two cents in as to why it won’t ever happen.

But then Paul Otellini, the new CEO of Intel, is questioned about some security issues during a recent conference, and he readily admits that there may be more secure options than Wintel available for consumers, as we speak. Of course, he was actually pressed on whether Apple computers would be a better option for security conscious consumers when he made the comment, but I didn’t want to rub it in.

I own a Wintel platform, but the Intel side sees a lot more time in Linux, and I am typing this entry on my Apple Powerbook (which after only two months of use, now accounts for more than 90% of computing time). And, no viruses, no spyware, and fewer spams (via Entourage).

BusinessWeek is running this article, and I think it is worth your time to read. It chronicles some of the recent criminal activity that has been plaguing the internet, and what the authorities are doing about it.

The bottom line is, hackers (the bad ones that break stuff, not the good ones who create stuff) are moving from fun to money as motive for their actions. Exploits are becoming ever more complex, and the authorities are being forced to implement ever more intricate countermeasures to knock them down.

I personally offer the good guys the best of luck, and any resources at Spamroll’s disposal. Best regards to the “Hacker Hunters.”

For those of you that use online resources like Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs for advertising your credentials (i.e posting your resume), you may want to think about cleaning up all that contact information, location history, etc.
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By now everyone has heard how a bunch of major banks were duped by fraudsters. For those that haven’t Bank of America, Wachovia, Commerce Bank, and PNC were all caught with their pants down when one Orazio Lembo, whom the banks were selling customer data to, turned out to be a swindler instead of a collection agent.

Yes, I said, collection agent.
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The US Department of Homeland Security has cut a deal for blocking spyware on its computer networks. The vendor is Websense, which will be providing protection spyware, viruses, and malicious mobile code via their enterprise offering.

In addition, the Websense software will be keeping government employees from goofing off at work, by limiting the time they can spend shopping online and booking their vacations, as well as keeping them off of game and pornography sites. Its part of the package, via the included high-performance, highly-scalable web filtering and security suite.

Sucks to be a government employee sometimes, doesn’t it?

Watch out credit union members! There is a phish swimming around in your body of water.

The lure is an email purportedly from the National Credit Union Administration, which asks the target to enter account information. The lure is not financial institution specific, meaning similar (and more targeted) emails could rear their ugly head down the road.

I am not going to spend a lot of time telling you about the FTC’s latest initiative, which is trying to get ISPs to stop zombied computers on their networks.

Why you ask? Am I just getting lazy?
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A laptop containing personal information on a bunch of current and former MCI employees was recently stolen. The employee carrying the information left the laptop in a car parked in a garage. Nice.
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