Saturday, October 23, 2004
'Spam King' Ordered to Disable Spyware
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
CONCORD, N.H. - A federal judge has ordered a man known as the "Spam King" to disable so-called spyware programs that infiltrate people's computers, track their Internet use and flood them with pop-up advertising.
U.S. District Judge Joseph DiClerico issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against Stanford Wallace and his companies, SmartBot.net Inc. of Richboro, Pa., and Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc. of Rochester. SmartBot's principal place of business is Barrington.
Prosecutors sought the injunction on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, which targeted Wallace in its first anti-spyware action.
The judge ordered Wallace to remove software code that exploits security holes in computer operating systems and Web browsers, then tracks people's Internet use to bombard them with pop-up ads.
Wallace also is accused of trying to sell computer users $30 remedies called "Spy Wiper" and "Spy Deleter" that the FTC says don't work.
"Spyware" describes a broad category of software that can be installed through unsafe e-mails or Web pages. It sometimes is bundled with other software that consumers download and install, such as file-sharing programs that can be used to download music and movies illegally.
Spyware programs quietly monitor which Web sites a consumer visits, and some may even redirect users to different sites. They can make computers sluggish or cause them to crash.
"We see it as good relief for consumers," FTC attorney Laura Sullivan said of DiClerico's order. She could not say how pervasive Wallace's spyware was.
Wallace's lawyer, Ralph Jacobs of Philadelphia, said Wallace wants "to use the Internet for advertising in lawful and proper ways."
"There are a wide range of advertising practices on the Internet that use some of the techniques the FTC objects to, and the defendant looks forward to an opportunity to establish exactly what advertising practices are allowable," Jacobs said.
Wallace formerly headed a company called Cyber Promotions in the 1990s that sent as many as 30 million junk e-mails daily to consumers, earning him the nicknames "Spamford" and "Spam King." He left the company after lawsuits by America Online and CompuServe.
The judge scheduled a hearing for Nov. 9.
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Thursday, October 21, 2004
New IE Bugs Open Up XP SP2 To Attack
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
TechWeb.com
Two new vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 6.0 were unveiled by a security firm Wednesday that hackers could exploit to bypass security features even in Microsoft's most secure OS, Windows XP (news - web sites) SP2.
According to Danish security company Secunia, the "highly critical" vulnerabilities stem from a flaw in IE's drag-and-drop feature and in the browser's security zone. Hackers could exploit these bugs by enticing users to malicious Web sites, where specially crafted files--including image and help files--could compromise the PC, leaving it open to attack or hijack.
Both bugs can be exploited to circumvent Windows XP SP2's Local Computer zone lockdown security feature, said Secunia.
"This has been confirmed on a fully patched system with Internet Explorer 6.0 and Microsoft Windows XP SP2," wrote Secunia in its online alert.
As is its usual practice when it touts critical problems in IE, Secunia recommended that users either disable Active Scripting in the browser, or switch to an alternate, such as Mozilla's Firefox.
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Yahoo's new "mysearch.yahoo.com" not Google
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
If you want to have a search be saved and more
http://mysearch.yahoo.com/learnmore.html
This won't spy on ya...
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Monday, October 18, 2004
30 Days to Becoming an Opera7 Lover
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
http://tntluoma.com/opera/lover/7/
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Space station's newest astronaut will cast his ballot from orbit, using e-mail
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The space station's newest astronaut will cast his ballot in the presidential election from 362 kilometres up, with NASA's help.
Leroy Chiao said Monday that the space agency has worked hard with local and federal authorities so he can vote from the orbiting complex, his home until spring. He will cast his ballot via a secure e-mail connection, much the same way another astronaut did from Russia's Mir space station in 1997.
U.S. astronauts, most of whom live around Houston, won the right to vote from space under a Texas bill signed into law by then-Gov. George W. Bush.
"Definitely, I'll be exercising my civic right and my civic duty," Chiao said.
Chiao arrived at the station over the weekend via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that also carried two cosmonauts, one of whom will spend the next six months with him in orbit.
The astronaut he is replacing, Mike Fincke, said he too will vote, but by absentee ballot from Russia. That is where Fincke will be on election day, recuperating from a six-month space station mission that is due to end with a landing in Kazakhstan this weekend.
On the Net:
NASA: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
Tech Giants Declare, 'United We Stand'
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
By Cynthia L. Webb, washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tough times often make for strange bedfellows, and the explosion of viruses, computer worms and spyware programs on the Internet is producing unique alliances among top technology firms.
Case in point is this morning's news that Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. are collaborating on computer security issues. The alliance hammers home the increasing realization in tech circles that the Lone Ranger approach to computer security just won't work, and with lots of money in lost in sales, worker productivity and fried hardware at stake, it just makes sense to work together.
The Associated Press noted the obvious about the two new partners: Both Cisco and Microsoft have both been hit hard by security problems. "Microsoft's Windows operating system and server software have been particularly hard hit, with attackers using flaws in its products to launch assaults that have slowed or crippled some of Microsoft's biggest corporate clients. In response, Microsoft has begun an initiative to improve the security of its products and recently released a massive security fix for its Windows XP (news - web sites) operating system. Cisco also has been a target. In a high-profile incident in July 2003, the networking equipment maker was hit by hackers who attempted to bring down Cisco equipment that carries the bulk of the world's Internet traffic. Many companies were forced to work quickly to install a patch or find other solutions."
• The Associated Press via The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Microsoft and Cisco Team Up On Security
The Cisco-Microsoft move is also "an attempt to address concerns that the two high-tech giants were headed in different directions," the Wall Street Journal reported. "In the past year, Cisco, the dominant maker of computer-networking equipment, and Microsoft, whose software runs the vast majority of personal computers and many corporate computer servers, had each laid out strategies for protecting corporate networks from threats such as worms and viruses. Both approaches generally would require computers to be checked for viruses and antivirus software before they are allowed access to a corporate network. But the two approaches differed in many technical details, including which machines would run the protective software. That prompted concerns from corporate tech managers, most of whom rely on both Cisco, San Jose, Calif., and Microsoft, Redmond, Wash."
The Journal said the two companies "would share technical details, integrate their technologies, and push for industrywide standards. There are no deadlines or timetables. Still, the companies 'understand that collaboration is key to addressing and minimizing' threats from worms and viruses, said Bob Kelly, general manager of Microsoft's Windows Server group."
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
