Monthly Archives: February 2004

Could Social Clustering Be Used To Kill Off Spam?

We can relax: Boffins are now grappling with spam. Nature reports that P. Oscar Boykin and Vwani Roychowdhury of the University of California, Los Angeles, have come up with a way to tackle at least half the emails we get, namely those we get from friends, colleagues, and anyone else either we know or the… Read More »

Can We Trust Anti-Spy Software?

Who watches over the watchers? In software, it seems, it’s often the same folk.   Reading a press release for X-Cleaner, “a privacy tool suite that detects and removes installed spyware and adware components”, it sounded interesting enough for a mention. After all, it “includes tools to securely delete files, edit the registry, disable startup programs”,… Read More »

Phishing And The Future Of Banking

Could phishing kill off online banking?   Probably not, but it’s likely to force greater regulation by central banks and others which will, reckon British-based Internet security consultants mi2g, mean “the next generation of electronic banking may have to rely on deeper layers of authentication that couple passwords with biometric security and smart card authentication.”   Mi2g estimate… Read More »

Smelly Emails

From the Really Silly Ideas That May Catch On So I Better Not Be Too Rude About It Dept, here’s word of a device that will deliver you scented emails. Sort of. The BBC (via the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review) reports that British Internet provider Telewest Broadband is testing an air freshener that is… Read More »

This week’s column – ActiveWords

This week’s Loose Wire column is about ActiveWords. Here’s an excerpt: I’M ABOUT TO TELL YOU about one of those software programs that could save you some serious slogging. So if you’re a lawyer or someone else who bills for your time, then you may want to skip this week’s column. But if you’re interested… Read More »