Good luck Jim… this message will self destruct in 40 seconds… A UK mobile (cell) company says it’s developed self-destructing text messages. In the spring they hope to introduce self destructing email/photo and voice messages. The recipient receives a link to the message and once viewed the message “self destructs” in 40 seconds. The good things they claim from this…
ultimately no one will ever have to worry about their messages or pictures ending up in the wrong hands ever again,
There is a trojan making the rounds that is acquired by clicking on links in an email. That’s not necessarily new, however…. this email represents itself as an authentic-looking Microsoft security bulletin and the links are supposedly to updates (sorted by Windows version.) It’s important to point out that Microsoft does not send registered users security notices in this manner and if you are concerned about security updates you should either enable automatic updates or visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
December’s rendition of Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday will feature two critical security fixes. The malicious software removal tool will also be updated…
Additionally, Microsoft will issue two non-security high-priority updates through Windows Update and Software Update Services, and three non-security high-priority updates through Microsoft Update and Windows Server Update Services. It is standard Microsoft procedure to not disclose the nature of the updates beforehand for security reasons.
Loose lips sink ships, so the old saying goes. These days documents are emailed back and forth and many times, revisions are made to “polite the text” up or “sanitize” or “redact sensitive information”. With many file formats though, the metadata about the revisions (or even the old versions of the data itself) are still there. The Security Fix has a great article on the topic today.
The Oboe service has launched. It’s a project that Michael Robertson of Mp3.com and Lindows/Linspire fame has been building interest in for the last 6 months or so. (Maybe a bit longer). The idea is that for a $39 per year subscription you can have an unlimited amount of space online to store your music files (.mp3, .wma, .ogg or .acc are autodetected in download links by the firefox plugin.) Then you can stream them anywhere. What’s interesting about the browser plugin is – let’s say you’re buying a track at the web site of whichever online music store, an icon appears next to the download link, you click and it “sideloads” the file into your online storage locker (bypassing the step of downloading to your pc, then uploading to the storage locker.)
Most of the time when I need to do a Dig or whois or traceroute I’m at a machine that I can use a good command line version of these essential network utilities. However, there are always times when you’re at a PC or situation that is either missing some of those, or you’d rather not run the utility on the machine for other reasons. Fortunately, many of these can be found online. For a long time, I’ve kept SamSpade.org in the back of my mind as a good utility address. There you’ll find Whois lookups, reverse IP -> domain lookups, traceroutes, etc. One thing I didn’t find though on the page was Dig…
Well, truth be told, your money is the target. Phishers are using information on a real class-action settlement to try to lure people in to entering sensitive information. The FBI is warning on these emails. Essentially they cite a (real) class-action settlement (with links) and claim that in order for PayPal to ensure that you receive payment, enter your information here….
A new phishing scheme is promising tax refunds in the amoutn of over $500 to recipients of the scam. Sophos has an advisory. It looks pretty devious – asking people to type in the link address (or copy and paste) and using URL redirect to make it use an official site to then redirect to the phony site.
Desktoplinux.com has a story on a new application directory for KDE. The directory can be found here and lists all applications that are native to KDE, (or QT). There are ratings for how well integrated into KDE the app is, links to the homepages for each application. (Some may need help with a homepage where none exists.)
For those of you using adsense for your sites outside of the U.S. I’ve just read that adsense firefox referrals are now available internationally. This is coming from the official Google adsense blog. The referral program was opened up in the last month offering site/content owners to add referral links into their content alongside the traditional ad blocks, or ad links. The rollout of the referral service was initially in the U.S. for Firefox referral’s. Google also launched referral links for it’s adsense program. The payout varies for each program, but the Firefox referrals can pay up to $1 each.