In the storage or any other technology industry, the golden rule of marketing is that larger numbers sell. Regardless of what the numbers mean, large numbers are the only thing easily understood by the vast majority consumers and storage is no exception. Conventional wisdom in the server and home enthusiast market says that more expensive high-RPM hard drives translate to better performance, but is this really true? I’m going to debunk this myth once and for all and prove to you that not only are you paying more money but you’re getting less storage and less performance.
September 15th, 2006
The nonprofit group behind a popular blacklist used to block spam has been hit with a multimillion-dollar judgment, but the order may not be enforceable.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ordered Wednesday that Spamhaus must pay $11,715,000 in damages to e360insight and its chief, David Linhardt, who sued the U.K.-based organization earlier this year over blacklisting.
The court also barred Spamhaus from causing any e-mail sent by e360insight or Linhardt to be “blocked, delayed, altered, or interrupted in anyway” and ordered Spamhaus to publish an apology stating that Linhardt and his company are not spammers, according to a copy of the order.
September 14th, 2006
As Congress mounts its final push before the midterm elections, a number of bills that threaten the bedrock of Internet privacy and civil liberties could either come up for votes or worm their way into larger legislative packages that end up being rushed into law. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) compiled the Internet Watch List so that lawmakers, journalists and Internet activists can keep close tabs on the dangerous legislative efforts that cannot be allowed to succeed in the so-called “silly season” at the end of the 109th Congress.
September 14th, 2006
Spammers are cycling through their lists of product-pitching URLs faster than ever, McAfee Inc. said Wednesday.
In August, major spam campaigns ran through 72 percent more domains per hour than the month prior, the Santa Clara, Calif. company said.
Spammers often use multiple URLs in their campaigns to avoid anti-spam blacklists, then change the embedded links as each batch of junk mail goes out. The dramatic increase in the number of different domains shows that spammers are stepping up their attempts to stay ahead of security defenses.
September 13th, 2006
David Ulevitch, who runs OpenDNS, has written a notable post below about the scams being run on Web users, and how big companies like Google and Yahoo aren’t doing much about it. Why is Google accepting money from “fraudulent” advertisers, as David calls them? Great question, and we’ll take it to Google!
September 11th, 2006
Last week California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger describes Republican legislators as the “wild bunch” and, referring to a Latina lawmaker, casually says that “black blood” mixed with “Latino blood” equals “hot” — a fiery personality. Though this has been down played in the media and has not recieved much national media coverage at all, this embarrasing moment has now turned into a legal matter. California Highway Patrol officials have opened a criminal investigation into “multiple” breaches and illegal downloads by outside hackers into the computers of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office, after an embarrassing private taped conversation was leaked last week to the Los Angeles Times, administration officials told The Chronicle. “There is an investigation conducted by the California Highway Patrol on how the tape obtained by the L.A. Times was acquired,” said a senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “This is a criminal matter that has been turned over to the CHP.” What I would like to know is when are the Californian’s and American people going to demand some sort of explanation if there is such a thing from the California Governor.
September 11th, 2006
No I am not talking about being out on the lake looking at your reflection in the smooth glass water with a cold beer in hand type of “fishing”.
Phishing has become a growing concern for the IT Security sector. As described by the wiki, phishing is a criminal activity using social engineering techniques. Phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out using email or an instant message, although phone contact has been used as well. According to this article Phishers targeted 154 different brands in July, a 20 percent increase from June and 12 percent higher than the previous record, the Anti-Phishing Working Group said Monday. There was some good news in the report, however, as the overall number of campaigns launched decreased to 23,670 – down almost 5,000 from the previous month. But the overall number of phishing sites increased to 14,191, also a new record.
September 8th, 2006
In an amazing display of incompetence, Chase Card Services has dumped tapes containing millions of customers’ details in a landfill site.
The company will now have to tell 2.6 million current and former credit card customers of Circuit City that tapes containing their details were tossed out when they were mistaken for rubbish. Chase is apparently working with both local and national authorities to find out what happened but thinks they were in a locked box which was crushed and dumped in the landfill hole.
There is no evidence that the tapes or their contents have been accessed or misused, the company said. And CEO Rich Srednicki issued a statement promising that: “The privacy of our customers’ personal information is of utmost importance to us, and we take the responsibility to safeguard this information very seriously.” Interpretations for what “very seriously” means are open to discussion.
September 4th, 2006
Google has become a household term, sort of like having a toaster. But what many of us do not know are that future plans of google include the company just inviting themselves into your home uninvited.
Is this cool or the start of distrut towards google?
The first thing that came out of our mouths when we heard that Google is working on a system that listens to what’s on your TV playing in the background, and then serves you relevant adverts, was “that’s cool, but dangerous”.
September 2nd, 2006
Internal company documents show that the security breach was only the first step in a more elaborate scam that involved bogus e-mail being sent to AT&T customers that attempted to trick them into revealing additional info that could be used for widespread fraud or identity theft.
“We haven’t seen anything like this before,” acknowledged Walt Sharp, an AT&T spokesman.