Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

NAI makes plans, Symantec acquires software manufacturer, Sophos receives royal visitors Network Associates Inc. (NAI) has unveiled plans to provide its customers with information and updates on software vulnerabilities. Initially the company will provide public statements on the severity of vulnerabilities, but it plans to expand the program into a comprehensive information service which will…

Well known female virus writer arrested. Finally. Last month the Belgian Federal Crime Unit reported that they had arrested and questioned the virus writer known as ‘Gigabyte’. Never one to shy away from the media spotlight (in fact, quite the opposite), Gigabyte’s notoriety centres on the fact she is female – defying the ever-popular perception…

Virus vs virus – new Welchia variant seeks to destroy Mydoom. Today we can say our goodbyes to Mydoom.A – which is programmed to stop spreading on today’s date, 12 February 2004. Meanwhile, today has also seen a newcomer to the virus world – a new variant of W32/Welchia (aka W32/Nachi). Like the original variant,…

Why technical writing is best left to technical journalists, Netcraft monitors SCO, and February’s VB magazine There is yet another great rant on the ZDNet website . Josh Mehlman rants specifically about an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, but his complaints are equally applicable to the vast majority of opinion pieces about MyDoom written…

Nigerian government takes action. Fed up of the stigma that 419 email scammers bring to Nigeria’s reputation and keen to build investor confidence in the country, Nigeria’s minister of finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is leading a campaign against email fraud. In late January the Federal Government of Nigeria approved a proposed amendment bill for changes to…

US Congressional representatives send bulk email While congratulating themselves for (supposedly) stemming the flow of spam with the passage of the CAN-SPAM anti-spam legislation, US Congressional representatives have at the same time been purchasing email lists with the intent to carry out bulk mailing of unsolicited mail. According to PCWorld , more than 30 members…

SCO offers a bounty for the arrest of the MyDoom author, Bruce Perens offers a conspiracy theory… SCO is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the author of MyDoom – a worm that launches a denial of service attack on the SCO website. Meanwhile, Bruce Perens has issued a call to…

AV on a spiritual level We all know how quickly time flies when we’re having fun, or when there’s a deadline looming, but a recent news report on the Asian news website Channel NewsAsia had us rushing to double-check our calendars to make sure we hadn’t fast-forwarded to April 1st. The site reports that, last…

Microsoft reports success of Blaster removal tool While young Romanian virus author Dan Dumitru Ciobanu awaited trial by a Romanian court last month for releasing a variant of W32/Blaster that reportedly infected just 27 machines, Microsoft was reflecting on the success of its removal tool for the original variant. The tool, the first of its…

DMA releases quick-glance reference guide for email marketers. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has released a quick-glance reference guide for marketers entitled ‘The CAN SPAM Act of 2003: What to Look For, What to Look OUT For’. The single-page guide provides graphical illustrations to contrast between a legitimate marketing email that complies with the law…