Michael Gracie 

The Australian Government has just released an anti-spam plugin for Outlook/Express that allows users to auto-delete spam and simultaneously report it to a central database. Can you imagine all the jaded lover harassment email, falsely portrayed as a note regarding tax evasion, that is going to wind up in that thing?

That is what the software industry seems to be doing, or at least that is what Microsoft is doing. Advertise a car’s price, and then add thousands of dollars in packages to make it bearable – sound familiar? Now this – sell an operating system with known (and sometimes glaring) security holes, then provide an [...]

The Chicago Tribune reports (via the LA Times): College Door Ajar for Online Criminals. I’m wondering if there is some standard for the number of records of personally identifiable information that must be stolen before the MSM picks up on a story, as they’re a little late to the punch here. It won’t be long [...]

And he should take one bet – whether or not Instapundit will be removed from the Google index for hostile commentary this.

FYI: Red Herring released their North American Top 100 private companies list – several in the security realm are included.

Stephen Jau has posted a nice tutorial on how to automate SpamCop submissions. It’s worth a read for you client side users, especially if you are getting a little lazy about reporting samples. There is also a selfish motive here, as the server I get regular email though checks the SpamCop RBL, and SpamCop is [...]

It is never fun watching scammers prey on the innocent, particularly through the use of technology. And with gas prices causing a pinch for those who can least afford it, you could expect someone (and I don’t mean the oil companies) is going to take advantage of the situation. Shane Keats of McAfee Site Advisor [...]

Kathleen Fitzpatrick of Planned Obsolescence notes that blog spambots seem to be getting smarter. Recent trackback spam to one of Ms. Fitzpatrick’s blogs seemed to have extracted information from the site at hand, twisted it around, and sent it back hoping to evade filters. Well, it worked – manual intervention and a keen eye were [...]

So lets give it some before the situation spirals even further out of control. The Washington Post reports: Study Finds ‘Extensive’ Fraud at Fannie Mae. I’ve hinted that where there’s fraud, there are usually bigger problems, and in the case of Fannie Mae I think there is a lot more to the story than just [...]

First, Congress debates the issue; now the House approved a bill (no comment on it’s contents). Let’s see how far this goes. Meanwhile, for those who still don’t understand what “net neutrality” is all about, the BBC has a nice piece which uses auto traffic as a metaphor for explaining the concept. Maybe having a [...]