Michael Gracie

The Register says that email authentication is gaining steam, but I am wondering who is going to arbitrate the standards infighting.

Yahoo has consistently pushed its DomainKeys, and now processes more than a billion messages a day signed with the measure. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Sender ID (with its shaky past) could make a “comeback” now that MS is chasing outsourced hosting strategies.

Will be interesting to hear how the battle progresses.

Techdirt Carlo notes that IronPort is calling bounced email a “$5 billion problem,” and proceeds to scoff at the notion.

“They contend the costs come from employees freaking out when they get bounced spam messages they didn’t send, then call in their company’s IT support to check things out.”

The IT security industry doesn’t stand a chance here. Big pharma should be jumping all over this “freaking out” phenom, and take the $5 billion off the table…in the form of prescriptions.

After years of tried and true service in the backoffice and among the highly technical set, UNIX-like operating systems are tooting high tones on the mainstream desktop. I am sure those historically “in the know,” having tackled Linux, OS X and other flavors for their computing needs, are feeling rather smug right now.

But wait! In the midst of “other” operating systems failure to deliver decent security (and maybe even fail to deliver to the store shelves in one piece), all of a sudden threats to the underdogs are being spoke of everywhere.

Does the newfound popularity make Linux and OS X vulnerable to technical attacks, or simply the target of pundits’ attacks?

And the house, and the condo, and who knows what else, on their retirement.

It wasn’t too long ago I was sitting in the living room with a Lucent employee, watching CNBC. The host had never invested in a stock, but stayed pinned to the tube after hours, cheering on their retirement account (which was funded wholly with Lucent stock). Needless to say, they aren’t betting on that account to see them through the golden years anymore.

You will likely hear every reason known to man why “this time it is different.” Yet it never turns out that way. Diversification has and always will be the saving grace, but with 65% of Americans plowing their retirement savings into homes, I am just wondering what is going to be the straw that breaks this camel’s back.

The Florida legislature is pushing through a measure that would….make false or misleading spam a crime. According to the local news report, Florida’s current law doesn’t include criminal penalties, and this latest bill would also allow civil recourse for victims and the state AG.

I am still waiting for some governmental body, someplace, to craft a “throw the book at them” law, instead of these piecemeal attempts that need annual reworking. Guess legislators need something to do each session, eh?

The latest report of spam relay activity from Sophos puts the US on top once again. The margin of victory, however, is shrinking. The Register predicts China will soon take the crown.

Where the hell are you spammers? You are losing! Get off your butts! Or is the potential cost for spamming catching up with you?

Bruce Schneier comments on data theft disclosure law, stating emphatically that the Data Accountability and Theft Act is too “watered down” to do much good.

I guess my intuition engine is still running.

This should serve as a warning for all financial services, telecomm, and other M&A activity: phishers are keeping an eye on deal flow. BankOne customers started receiving phishing emails welcoming them to Chase - you know what happens next. They are asked to enter some personal info, and their bank accounts are promptly emptied.

Phishers pay attention to Wall Street. Clever, clever.

The issue of phishing took center stage at the recent MIT Spam Conference, and with good reason.

It is one thing to separate a fool from a few hundred bucks over fake pills; it is quite another to separate the innocent from all their dough by stealing their bank account username and passwords, or hijacking an ecommerce account for perpetrating scams in someone else’s name.

Online scammers are going where the big money is - efforts to find solutions should naturally head that way too.

Brian McWilliams, author of Spam Kings and the Spam Kings Blog, is moving on.

I for one hope you found something enjoyable to do, Brian. Best wishes to you.

Regards,

Michael