Monthly Archives: January 2004

The Hazards Of Being Mike Row

From the Proof That Microsoft Has No Sense of Humour, Is Appallingly Cheap, But Eventually Gets It Dept: Paul Thurrott of Windows and .NET Magazine tells the story of a Canadian teenager called Mike Rowe who brought down the full wrath of Redmond’s lawyers when he set up a website called MikeRoweSoft.com. They sent him a… Read More »

“Internet Voting Isn’t Safe”

The e-voting saga continues. Four computer scientists say in a new report that a federally funded online absentee voting system scheduled to debut in less than two weeks “has security vulnerabilities that could jeopardize voter privacy and allow votes to be altered”. They say the risks associated with Internet voting cannot be eliminated and urge… Read More »

The Charting Of An Urban Myth? Or A Double Bluff?

Here’s a cautionary tale from Vmyths, the virus myths website, on how urban legends are born. Vmyths says that Reuters News Agency filed a report from Singapore last week quoting anti-virus manufacturer Trend Micro (makers of PC-cillin) as saying computer virus attacks cost global businesses an estimated $55 billion in damages in 2003. That’s a lot… Read More »

The Next Step: Anti Phishing Services

MessageLabs, those hyperactive purveyors of Internet security, have come up with an anti-phishing service for banks and other targeted companies (Phishing is the scam whereby bogus emails entice you to give up your online banking password and other sensitive information), the first of its kind I do believe. It had been available to about 15… Read More »

Revenge Of The Popup

TechDirt points to a new service that beats PopUp blockers. The Popstitial, according to marketing company webadvantage, “doesn’t defeat pop blockers, it instead determines whether a popup blocker is being used. If so, Popstitial then serves up a full-page advertisement that can either be a separate ad or the same style as the missed pop-up/pop-under”.… Read More »