Since 1998, the Federal Trade Commission has requested Internet users to forward unwanted spam to it for investigation. The agency now receives over 70,000 forwarded e-mails a day. What does it do with all of them?
Technology
Coplink: a long-overdue idea
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Software
Coplink, a program that links and compares data from new and existing police investigation files, is being compared to Google for law enforcement. So far, the Tucson Police Department is the only agency fully using the software, which costs between $40,000 and $200,000. The decision on whether to use this software ought to be
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Soon, it WILL all be spam
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Email
Last week, Earthlink mistakenly refused a large number of e-mails coming from various domains, thinking it was spam. This just happened to me — I regularly forward e-mail from my work address to home, and for the past two weeks Southwestern Bell refused the e-mail from my law firm domain name, thinking it was…
New report on employer monitoring of e-mail and Internet use
By Tom Mighell on
The GAO released a report yesterday showing the results of a survey of the e-mail/Internet use policies of 14 employers. Interestingly, the report shows that while most of the companies surveyed have implemented procedures to protect their networks from outside attack, none changed their computer use policies in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Do you own your e-mail?
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Email
When the U.S. Post office cannot deliver a letter to you, it returns the mail to the original sender, assuming a valid return address. But what about e-mail? This CNet article reports on how an ISP suspended a user’s Internet account, but continued to accumulate e-mail without notifying the user or the senders of the…
PDAs: a mirror to the soul?
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Mobile Technology
This article from the New York Times comments on how PDAs are significant sources of evidence in criminal prosecutions, in cases where the accused downloaded lots of incriminating information onto his or her palmtop, and then forgot to delete it. An expert is quoted in the article as saying that a PDA is a person’s
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E-voting probably still a long way off
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Technology
A computer science professor at Bryn Mawr University criticizes the current state of e-voting in this Guardian article, stating that the current systems that exist are recipies “for fraud and error.” The article reports that unlike banking and airlines sites, e-voting programs do not meet basic standards for security and verifiability — there is…
What’s next — arrest by instant message?
By Tom Mighell on
Posted in Legal Technology, Technology
The Justice Department is asking an appellate court to allow the use of faxed search warrants in criminal investigations.
That admin alert may be spam
By Tom Mighell on
Clever spammers are now creating junk mail that masquerades as an alert from your network administrator. Tricky, tricky….now you don’t even have to open your e-mail program to get spam.
Spam and Legit E-mail: Can you tell the difference anymore?
By Tom Mighell on
This article from CNET discusses how legitimate Internet advertisers are suffering a backlash from Internet users, who apply the term “spam” to any unwanted e-mail intrusion.