Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Microsoft continues to make good use of its legal resources. Microsoft has filed seven new lawsuits against spammers. The company is suing the individuals (who currently remain unnamed) for violating the CAN-SPAM Act – specifically for sending bulk unsolicited emails containing material of a sexually explicit nature, without labelling them as such. The CAN-SPAM law…

New twice-monthly email newsletter dedicated to news and technical information about the spam and anti-spam arena launched. Last month saw the inaugural issue of a twice-monthly email newsletter dedicated to news and technical information about the spam and anti-spam arena. The newsletter, produced by POPFile and Spammers’ Compendium author John Graham-Cumming, is a vendor-neutral, technical…

The VB team wishes all Virus Bulletin readers a very happy Christmas and a prosperous new year. The VB team wishes all Virus Bulletin readers a very happy Christmas and a prosperous new year. Continuing the custom of making charitable donations in lieu of sending Christmas cards, VB’s donations for Christmas 2004 will be made…

Announcement and first call for papers of the European Research Journal in Computer Virology October saw the announcement and first call for papers of the European Research Journal in Computer Virology – a twice-yearly independent scientific journal dedicated to computer virus and anti-virus technologies. The aim of the journal is to promote constructive research in…

Spam goes yet one step further – spiritual salvation! We are all accustomed to receiving spam that advertises herbal medicines, designer watches, new mortgages and online degrees – and we are even used to seeing spam that promises ‘quickie’ ordinations for aspiring ministers – but MessageLabs has reported an influx of spam that goes one…

VB regrets that three mistakes crept into the Comparative review published in the November issue. The mistakes were as follows: The version number for Sophos Anti Virus should have read 3.86, not 3.83 as published. The values for CAT Quickheal in the standard on-demand test set should have read ‘Misses: 169, Detection: 92.91%’ in all…

Virus infection nearly blew the cover on a secret FBI fraud investigation two years ago. It has come to light that a virus infection nearly blew the cover on a secret FBI fraud investigation two years ago. The FBI had been investigating Dr Rafil Dhafir, who was suspected of breaking US sanctions against Iraq. Shortly…

Sabeer Bhatia, the man behind Hotmail, has announced that he has invested in an anti-spam company Sabeer Bhatia, the man behind Hotmail, has announced that he has invested in an anti-spam company. Bhatia, who developed the concept of web-based email in his mid-20s, and subsequently sold Hotmail to Microsoft for a reported $400 million, revealed…

Virus Bulletin is seeking submissions from those wishing to present at VB2005 in Dublin – so set aside some time between the season’s festive parties to get writing! Virus Bulletin is seeking submissions from those wishing to present at VB2005, the Fifteenth Virus Bulletin International Conference, which will take place 5-7 October 2005 at the…

35 high-profile organisations sign open letter, calling for a rapid rollout of email authentication technologies Last month an open letter was sent to members of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), calling for a rapid rollout of email authentication technologies. The letter was signed by 35 high-profile organisations including Amazon.com, the Anti-Phishing Working Group, the…