Spam Me, Spam You

Over the last few weeks, I have been seeing an unprecedented about of spam and phishing emails. Old phishing email frauds and a few news ones done by obvious amateurs. I am worried that someone is falling for those emails otherwise spammers would not be sending out their spam.

I start to wonder if I am getting better at finding them and tracing their origin or the phishing email spammers are becoming more careless.

This past week I was at a customers home, where he was showing me some of the email he was getting. They were obviously phishing/spam email. They were sent out to several email address of the same internet service provider.

I was able to trace the source to a server in California. Being close to Halloween, I was tempted to send a denial of service attack on that server, for sending out such email. When I cooled down, I realized that would only aggravate them. The only way I could really, hurt them was notified that internet service provider. They cut off the spammer and started to tighten up their security.

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An Ounce of Protection

“An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure,” is one of those clichés that we have heard all our lives. When it comes to computer security, it is one thing many people do not think about or react in extreme paranoia.

A computer connected to the internet can be an open door to the whole wide world at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). Cyber criminals look for careless people. All they have to do is get one of three things from you.

1. Financial information: Credit cards and bank accounts, with passwords or authorization codes

2. Social Security number: Social Security card number along with date of birth is all a cyber criminal needs to open a charge account in your name.

3. Driver's license/other government issued identification: A pictured identification is not that secure. Get a cashier in a hurry, will not notice that the picture is replaced. A fake check or credit card will drain you bank account.

This information is obtained by filling out a form on a fake website. Another good source to get personal information is by dumpster diving in the early morning hours for bills or bank statements that were not shredded. Businesses that are entrusted you privileged information have to practice a much lower level of safe computer habits

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Never Give Up and Never Give In

Computers have become a very valuable part of our society. Computers are just for playing games, or data processing. They are how we get the daily news. Students in colleges and universities are required to have a computer to complete class assignments.

The average person finds discounts by receiving bills and paying them electronically. I can say there is not an area that is affected by the use of computers. Many companies want employment applications filled out digitally.

An electronic presence has become a must. Businesses are expected to have websites, before they are considered a serious business. Individuals are expected to have at least one email address to show their computer savvy.

I spend quite a bit of time teaching people when never grew up or took time to learn basic computer skills. They come to a point in their life where they have to learn some computer skills just to function in our world as it is today.

Many of my older students get frustrated very easy. Just the learning a new skill that other see as basic a reading or writing increases the learning stress. They find themselves making mistakes. Some forget how to send an email to look in a certain format, can cause a paralyzing stress. I try to encourage them to keep at it. Expect to make mistakes.

Don’t give up or give in to the frustration. I remind them what it was like to learning to ride bicycle. You cannot give up. The benefits down the road will make a big difference in ones self esteem.

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Battle to Secure Your Computer

Microsoft’s new operating system Vista is due out in just a couple of months. Norton and McAfee are angry. If Microsoft has it’s way third party security software products will no longer be needed. Microsoft put together an operating system that is so secure that Anti-virus, anti-spyware has programs are no longer needed.

The computer code was written by humans, but humans are imperfect. How can they create something that is perfect? It may look perfectly secure for a time. But I know the skills of black hat hackers will find a whole that break into the locked heart of the operating system.

A perfect product may sound like a great marketing sales pitch. It will have non-thinking sheep buy the product, but the reality of the situation will raise it’s not so pretty head to the embarrassments of corporate executives.

I believe it will be mid summer of 2007 before we will see some end to the wars between the computer security vendors and Microsoft. Will the courts allow Microsoft provide the security for their own operating system? Will the courts grant these other vendors force Microsoft to open the door for companies like Symantec and McAfee provide third party support when it comes to securing your computer?

I will not put Vista on my production computers until this issue is settled. I hope the issues will be resolved by mid 2007. Then I will feel more comfortable upgrading to Vista.


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Fall of 2006 is Depressing

The green leaves are turning to their golden yellow.
Making their descent to the ground,
Frost has not showed its self at the days first light.
However, I expect it to any morning now.

The morning news is filled more than its usual stories.
Violent acts are making less sense.
Today, is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement,
It is acting like the beginning of an apocalyptic era.

The richest man on earth and his geeks tell us
When January of 2007 arrives,
He is going to push on us new software for our computers
Even if it is doesn’t work and inferior.

This may not be a physically long cold winter,
Many people will pray that it was one.
The emotions and tensions of this fall and winter will be with us
Especially after the spring has melted this winters snow.