Have social sites made email obsolete?
An article in today’s Wall Street Journal says that email is no longer the communication method of choice:
Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over.
In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold—services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a [...]
Check your phishing IQ
How good are you at detecting a phish? Phishers have become expert at fooling people so it’s not as easy as you may think. Periodically, I mention sites where you can test your ability to detect a phish and here’s one from SonicWall.
How to tell if an Internet address is a phish
Did you ever wonder what the different parts of an Internet address or URL actually signified? Some years ago I wrote an article over at my education site that explained what each of the various pieces of an URL meant. I also mentioned how rarely used portions of a standard URL could be used to [...]
Email phishing attack spreading
Following up on yesterday’s report of stolen Hotmail passwords, Neowin reports other services have also been attacked:
Microsoft confirmed yesterday evening that the popular web email service, Hotmail, had been targeted by malicious fraudsters in what is commonly referred to as a phishing scam, tricking users into revealing their credentials at fake websites.
Neowin can today [...]
Hotmail hacked
If you use Hotmail, be aware that your password may have been revealed on the Internet. Neowin reports:
An anonymous user posted details of the accounts on October 1 at pastebin.com, a site commonly used by developers to share code snippets. The details have since been removed but Neowin has seen part of the list posted [...]
Spam and botnets flood the Internet
At Gigaom, Sebastian Rupley reports on a Symantec study of Web traffic from spam and botnets:
How much of a drag is spam putting on the global broadband and messaging infrastructure, and where is it coming from? According to Symantec’s newly released 2009 MessageLabs Intelligence Report, spam is a huge burden: In September, the global ratio [...]
IRS spam scam becomes big problem
Fake IRS emails are flooding mailboxes. The subject is usually “Notice of Underreported Income”. Computerworld reports:
Criminals are waging a nasty online campaign right now, hoping that their victims’ fears of the tax collecter will lead them to inadvertently install malicious software.
The spam campaign, entering its third week now, is showing no signs of slowing [...]
Hackers R Us
Hacking has become a business. Not only are various kits for hacking available but you can hire your own hacker. Cracking email passwords from somebody else’s account is one service. The Washington Post reports:
When Elaine Cioni found out that her married boyfriend had other girlfriends, she became obsessed, federal prosecutors say. So she turned to [...]
Moving accounts to Gmail
One thing that keeps people from changing email accounts is the major hassle of transferring everything from one account to another. The popular Web mail service Gmail from Google tries to make that easy. The site Google Operating System gives some information.
5 email scams
Readers are probably already aware of these scams but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded. MakeUseOf has a post on 5 current types of fraudulent email. They include phony letters from banks and PayPal, the ever-popular Nigerian rip-offs, and notifications of winning lotteries.
More fake Windows updates
Today, I received several emails purporting to be from Microsoft and containing links for supposed critical updates. For example, one read:
Dear Windows User
A Critical Update is available for your version of Windows. Click here to begin installation. [I have removed the link- VL]
Thank you for your cooperation, protecting our customers is our number one priority.
Regards,
Windows [...]
