Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

ISPA best practices document advises providers on spam control. The UK Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA), a voluntary grouping of service providers and other Internet firms, has issued a set of guidelines aimed at helping ISPs combat spam both as it arrives at their networks and should it originate from within them. The list of…

ActiveX and overflow issues allowed remote data theft, local system attacks. Several vulnerabilities have been revealed in many Kaspersky security products, including ActiveX flaws which could expose data, allowing files to be accessed or stolen by remote malicious attackers, and other flaws which could allow malicious local users to bypass security, escalate local privileges and…

Survey finds junk email costs $713 per head in loss of productivity. A study into the impact of spam on US businesses has produced some startling figures for the financial impact of reduced worker productivity, with time spent dealing with spam and ploughing through choked inboxes slowing down performance and wasting companies’ money. The survey,…

Microsoft reacts fast to widespread zero-day exploitation. Microsoft have once again broken their monthly patching cycle to release a fix for a vulnerability which has been the focus of media attention as well as widespread reports of in-the-wild exploitation. The animated cursor buffer-overflow flaw , details of which first emerged late last week, has been…

New law may penalise careless zombie hosts. New anti-spam laws come into effect in Switzerland on Sunday, imposing strict curbs on spamming and strong punishment for perpetrators. The new legislation may also affect legitimate computer users, with failure to keep machines clear of spam-sending bots also seen as an offense. Although it is estimated that…

UK man should face trial in States despite threats, say judges. Greg McKinnon, the British hacker accused of breaking into NASA and US military networks while apparently investigating UFO activity, has lost his latest court case attempting to block his extradition to the US. McKinnon admits accessing several US networks, in many cases using unchanged…

The April issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The April 2007 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or download in PDF format. Just a few of the things this month’s issue has in store are: Magical lights shine on you : ‘The use of…

Met Police website spoofed by 419 scammers. Last month saw the appearance of the latest 419 scamming trick: ‘anti-terrorist certificates’ sold via a fake version of the London Metropolitan Police website complete with fake anti-terrorist hotline number. The scam referred recipients to what appeared, to all intents and purposes, to be the official website of…

Anti-spyware legislation presented in US House of Representatives for third time. Anti-spyware legislation was presented for the third time in the US House of Representatives last month. The proposed ‘Spy Act’ (‘Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act’) would make it unlawful to install software that gathers information, monitors usage, serves up ads or modifies…

VB has revealed the conference programme for VB2007, Vienna. VB has revealed the conference programme for VB2007, Vienna. Once again, the three-day conference programme boasts an exceptional line-up of anti-malware and anti-spam expert speakers and caters for both technical and corporate audiences. More than 40 presentations will cover subjects including: automated analysis, rootkits, malware in…