Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

US Federal Trade Commission says the US government must be generous with its rewards if it decides to encourage ‘bounty hunters’ to track down email spammers In a report to Congress, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has said that the US government must be prepared to be generous with its rewards if it decides…

The AV company that never seems to stop buying, reveals its latest purchase. Symantec, the AV company that never seems to stop shopping, has revealed its latest purchase: digital security company @stake, Inc. A Symantec spokesperson said of the acquisition, “By joining forces with [@stake] we expand the capacity and capabilities of our consulting organization,…

Do-it-yourself phishing kits are available free of charge to anyone surfing the Internet. Do-it-yourself phishing kits are available free of charge to anyone surfing the Internet according to researchers at Sophos. The DIY kits include the graphics, web code and even all the text any would-be phisher would need to construct a fake online banking…

US judge rules Virginia’s anti-spam law is constitutional. A judge in the US has ruled that Virginia’s anti-spam law is constitutional. Back in May this year VB reported that the counsel representing a man charged with spam offences had called for the case to be dismissed since, they argued, the Virginian anti-spam law violated the…

One-year suspension issued to mobile phone picture services supplier as punishment for carrying out unsolicited marketing. Chinese Internet company Sohu.com will be subject to a one-year suspension as a supplier of mobile phone picture services as punishment for carrying out unsolicited marketing. The suspension was handed out by state-controlled mobile phone company China Mobile for…

The encryption field was thrown into a frenzy at the end of last month when the security of hash functions MD5, SHA-0 and SHA-1 was called into question. The encryption field was thrown into a frenzy at the end of last month when the security of hash functions MD5, SHA-0 and SHA-1 was called into…

Despite there currently being no US laws regarding SMS spam. US mobile provider Verizon Wireless has filed a lawsuit against 51 individuals who, it alleges, sent over 4.7 million unsolicited commercial SMS messages to its subscribers. Verizon claims that the defendants sent unsolicited SMS advertisements (featuring the usual roll call of products: Ephedra, mortgages, sexual…

CA splashes out on anti-spyware technology. Computer Associates has announced its acquisition of PestPatrol, a privately-held provider of anti-spyware software. CA will market the PestPatrol technology – which detects and removes spyware, adware, Trojan horses, DoS attack agents and other backdoor web-based threats from individual and networked PCs – as eTrust PestPatrol, and will incorporate…

McAfee splashes out on vulnerability management. McAfee, Inc. has announced its impending acquisition of Foundstone, Inc., manufacturer of vulnerability management software, for $86 million in cash. The AV vendor, which recently rebranded , and sold off its network and application performance management business, will add Foundstone’s line of vulnerability management software to its catalogue of…

XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) establishes stronger security settings that help defend against viruses, hackers and worms. According to Microsoft, the newly released (and much anticipated) Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) “will establish stronger security settings that help defend against viruses, hackers and worms.” However, the company warns that SP2 could cause loss of…