Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Two giants unite in the courtroom Microsoft and Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, have joined forces in an effort to crack down on drug-related spam. The two companies have filed 17 parallel lawsuits against two ‘international pharmacy spam rings’ accused of selling illegal versions of Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction drug Viagra via spam. While Pfizer…

Supreme Court urges government to crack down on mobile spam The Supreme Court of India has urged the Indian government to introduce legal measures to crack down on unsolicited calls and SMS spam sent to mobile phone users. The Court issued notices to the Government, mobile operators and multi-national banks on a public interest litigation…

Microsoft announces another AV acquisition Microsoft has announced that it has signed definitive agreements to acquire AV and security provider Sybari Software Inc. Microsoft says it plans to use this acquisition to further provide its enterprise customers with new solutions to help protect them from malicious software. Microsoft has been using Sybari products to protect…

Learnt how to create viruses? Now learn how to create spam and spyware Students at the University of Calgary will soon be learning how to write spam and spyware programs as part of their computer security course. In the summer of 2003, the anti-virus industry was up in arms over the fact that the University…

Anti-spam codes of conduct for SMS and email New Zealand’s Telecommunications Carriers Forum (TCF) has signed an SMS anti-spam code of conduct, and is due to sign a similar code designed to curb email spam today. The SMS Anti-Spam Code was drawn up in December 2004 and officially signed yesterday at a board meeting of…

New legislation proposes fines to deter would-be spammers Although it has been illegal to send spam in Germany since July 2004, a new anti-spam law is being proposed by the country’s ruling coalition to try to send a stronger message to would-be spammers. The law proposes a fine of 50,000 Euros for those found guilty…

Study reveals older people and women most likely to take charge of protecting their computer systems A study by UK managed security firm Preventon has indicated that retired people now account for two-fifths of IT security purchases (in the home user market) in the UK, and that women are rapidly closing the gender gap. According…

FTC representative warns legitimate marketers it will go after them too if they don’t comply with CAN SPAM regulations The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned that it will prosecute legitimate companies if they do not comply with anti-spam regulations and will not concentrate its legal activity solely on fraudulent organisations. FTC staff attorney…

An inevitable string of tsunami related hoaxes, fraud attempts and new malware variants As most of the world was still reeling from the news and pictures of devastation in Asia following the 26 December tsunami, the FBI was forced to issue an alert last month, warning those wishing to donate to tsunami relief funds that…

The deadline for submission of abstracts for VB2005 is approaching rapidly. All submissions must be received by 10 March 2005. VB2005, the Fifteenth Virus Bulletin International Conference, will take place 5–7 October 2005 at The Burlington, Dublin, Ireland. Submissions are invited on all subjects relevant to the anti-virus and anti-spam arenas. A list of suggested…