Blog posting on the fly…
Took some time but I was finally able to get my iPhone to work with my blog for mobile posting. It’s nice to be able to post from anywhere now!
Host of Internet Spam Groups is Cut Off
Spam Drops After Internet Providers Disconnect a California Hosting Firm
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 12, 2008; 7:16 PM
The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide dropped drastically today after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations allegedy engaged in spam activity was taken offline, according to security firms that monitor spam distribution online.
While its gleaming, state-of-the-art, 30-story office tower in downtown San Jose, Calif., hardly looks like the staging ground for what could be called a full-scale cyber crime offensive, security experts have found that a relatively small firm at that location is home to servers that serve as a gateway for a significant portion of the world’s junk e-mail.
The servers are operated by McColo Corp., which these experts say has emerged as a major U.S. hosting service for international firms and syndicates that are involved in everything from the remote management of millions of compromised computers to the sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and designer goods, fake security products and child pornography via email.
But the company’s web site was not accessible today, when two Internet providers cut off MoColo’s connectivity to the Internet, security experts said. Immediately after McColo was unplugged, security companies charted a precipitous drop in spam volumes worldwide. E-mail security firm IronPort said spam levels fell by roughly 66 percent as of Tuesday evening.
2008 Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report
Growing financial pressures, unforeseen threats, and a volatile and rapidly changing business landscape — apt descriptions for both the world economy and this years Worldwide Infrastructure Security Survey.
Arbor Networks once again has completed a survey of the largest ISPs and content providers around the world. Some 70 lead security engineers responded to 90 questions covering a spectrum of Internet backbone security threats and engineering challenges. This fourth annual survey covered the 12-month period from August 2007 through July 2008.
A copy of the full report is available at http://www.arbornetworks.com/report
Court Finds File Hashes Subject to Fourth Amendment Protection
Want to hash my hard drive? Come back with a warrant
Federal agents seeking to generate MD5 hashes from files on a suspect’s hard drive must now obtain a warrant before doing so, says a Pennsylvania U.S. District Court, as such an act constitutes a government search protected by the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
The case in question, United States v.Robert Crist, involves accusations of child pornography and a warrantless search conducted against the defendant’s hard drive. In the case, a federal agent generated an MD5 hash – a unique numeric signature of a file – of every file and then compared them to a national child pornography database.
Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama
I believe this endorsement speaks for itself. Of particular note was a comment where he discussed the concerns from members of the republican party that Barack “might” be Muslim.
“Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian,” he said. “But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, ‘He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.’ This is not the way we should be doing it in America.”
More:
iPhone 3G: No shared filesystem, no cut and paste, no mail attachment editing…No Joy.
Well my iPhone frustrations continue…
I loathe the fact that I can’t do anything with email attachments other than just read them. It would be nice to be able to edit a word attachment on occaision. It also would be cool to be able to attach a doc to an email.
As I have said before, a system wide cut and paste feature, available on almost all smart phones, is something that should have been included in the first gen iPhones.
And why does every single text editor have to have it’s own, independent storage area for docs? I can’t even share docs from one text editor to another. If it is stored in one text editing app’s filestore, there is no way for another text editor to get to it. This is just plain ridiculous.
The cool thing though? I’m posting this from my iPhone.
Ok Apple…You’re forgiven…for now but my patience is wearing thin. Beauty will only get you so far.
Security policy being bypassed by employees, survey finds
By Robert Westervelt, News Editor
14 Oct 2008 | SearchSecurity.com
Many companies have security policies and procedures in place, but the results of a recent survey found that employees are bypassing many of them, bringing sensitive data home with very few protections.
In many cases, companies are struggling to find the right balance between strict security requirements and employee productivity as more employees work at home. Encryption and other security technologies are available, but some firms are accepting the risk and some may be unaware that end users are bringing customer data, personally identifiable information or company financial data home with them on laptops, smartphones and Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drives.
Say It Ain’t So Sarah! “People Who Live In Glass Houses Shouldn’t Throw Stones, You Betcha”
Panel: Palin abused power in trooper case
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) — Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska’s governor and violated state ethics law by trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state police, a state investigator’s report concluded Friday.
“Gov. Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda,” the report states.
Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan’s refusal to fire State Trooper Mike Wooten from the state police force was “likely a contributing factor” to Monegan’s July dismissal, but Palin had the authority as governor to fire him, the report by former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower states.
