Michael Gracie

A study was just completed that suggests that members of both major US political parties ignore the facts when making their arguments. Its all based on emotion versus rationalization, with the emotion engine powering up every time someone doesn’t agree completely with something a politico says or does.

I’m not completely sure where the results of this study are headed from here. It is going to be difficult for either party to use it for finger pointing purposes, so you can imagine that both sides will be denoucing it as bunk. It usually happens anytime someone offers a middle view. If you can’t imagine that course, just start reading partisan blogs.

The country is doing just find as the incumbent “kings of spam.” Once again, the United States has been re-crowned leader of outgoing spam traffic. China and South Korea are still closing in, but the US has a comfortable four percentage point cushion.

I was beginning to get worried.

It is the classic, politically correct ending to any top executive’s resignation announcement. It is no surprise that Symantec President Gary Bloom has resigned his post, particularly after the the company has had.

I just wish an executive would come out swinging.

I am leaving because the market is hypercompetitive, our products run on a platform that is unfixable from a security standpoint, and I drink two bottles of Maalox a day.

A thought just occured to me on the whole Qwest/GoDaddy (and whomever else EmailBattles finds) charge-for-spam fiasco.

Sooner or later, Qwest or GoDaddy will actually send someone a bill, that someone will claim they weren’t at fault, and the matter will wind up in court. Who is responsible?

These big companies will invariably try picking on someone small, like a consumer account. Someone will realize that a machine was infected with a spam-spewing zombie, but it will be difficult (and expensive) to explain to a judge or jury what a zombie actually is. And how did it get there?

Is this an argument that the computer, or its operating system (with all its built in security mechanisms - or lack thereof) lacks fitness for the purpose it was intended? Instead of just pointing fingers at the network and registrars, I’d suggest someone pay careful attention to software T&Cs as well.

Adware maker 180Solutions continues to garner attention. Now a technology watchdog group is asking the FTC to investigate their business practices, something that has been done time and time again.

180solutions said it shares CDT’s “vision of protecting the rights and privacy of consumers on the Internet” and looks forward to continuing a dialogue that already has led to “voluntarily improvements to address every reasonable concern that the CDT has made us aware of.”

Of course they want to continue dialogue. Dialogue is what their lawyers are telling them to continue. Dialogue is a synonym for delay - what lawyers get paid for. And continuing to spew out spyware is what 180Solutions gets paid for - making delays a very convenient proposition. So much for being genuine.

And niether did Jeff Matthews. Matthews is finally tiring of Dell’s plummenting technical support quality. I am wondering why it took a smart guy so long to figure this out.
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Sunbelt Software found a website that teaches people how to create trojans that steal bank account information. You have to know that by the time someone has the balls to post such information on a public website, the malcreants with the skills to follow directions are already hard at work.

Qwest has taken a beating in the press over their $5 lottery ticket purchases. There has been a bit of “clarification,” but not much in the way of capitulation. It has been a PR nightmare, to say the least.

Unfortunately, the games don’t end there. EmailBattles has found that GoDaddy’s registrar arm has per spam charges in their T&Cs as well, albeit at a mere buck an incident.
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Search engine spam may not seem to affect as many folks as some think, but it is a menace. Every time someone does a search, they are bound to run into useless (and sometimes ridiculous) links at the top of the page. Overzealous search engine optimization techniques are to blame, and Jim Hedger does a heck of a job explaining the tricks that make your search results suck.

IBM recently release a report on security threat trends, letting everyone know that 2006 is expected to be a period of leveling off. Big Blue noting over a billion (yes, a BILLION) computer security threats in 2005. Is this “leveling off” supposed to mean we are out of the woods?