There have been several stories over the past few days about spam worth mentioning. First up is new spam-fighter Mailblocks’ failed attempt to stop others from using its claimed technology. As you may remember, Mailblocks uses the challenge-response method to differentiate between e-mail sent by humans and that sent by junk e-mailers. Turns out
Technology
Enemy at the gates
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Email
A new article from Wired discusses how today’s spam fighting programs act as medieval castle guards who bar entry at the gate. Several spam-fighting tools are discussed.
New RSS Feeds
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Blogs and Blogging, RSS
Two terrific sites now boast RSS feeds, so you can download them directly into your newsreader. First, Sabrina has an RSS Feed over atLLRX. And the new webzine Law Practice Today also has a new RSS feed, but when I tried to download it there was an error in it. You might
More on sending spam
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Email
A few weeks ago I wrote on how spammers are hijacking your PC to send spam. But they don’t necessarily need to get into your computer to do it — they can spoof your e-mail address, forging not only your address but also your e-mail server.
How to avoid this? Follow a few simple…
A challenge for spam blockers
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Email
Declan McCullagh writes that some of today’s new spam-blocking programs may actually wreak e-mail havoc. These programs use “challenge-response” technology, which requires human non-spammers to click a link or type a word in a box to make sure their e-mail gets to you. Apparently, much of this software is poorly designed, forcing individuals well-known…
A sxam-xroof xost
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Email
Trend Micro’s eManager spam filter went berzerk last week, blocking all e-mails that contained the letter P.
How Gator does it
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Software
I used to love Gator. It was a terrific utulity that securely remembered your passwords and contact information, allowing me to fill forms on the Internet literally in seconds. Then the pop-up ads started. Whenever I visited an Internet vendor, Gator would cause a competitor’s ad to pop up on the screen. That was…
A flurry of spam lawsuits
By Tom Mighell on
State and federal authorities cracked down on spam last week, filing more than 45 cases against Internet scam artists and spammers.
How many did you get today?
By Tom Mighell on
According to vnunet, most spam arrives in your inbox on a Thursday. What with the amount of spam I get, there are just too many Thursdays in my week.
Defining the spam problem
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Email
The Federal Trade Commission hosted a 3-day spam conference that started yesterday, but the experts invited to the conference can’t even agree on the definition of spam.