Former Soviet Bloc, Allies, Under Lurid Attack

Trend Micro researchers David Sancho and Nart Villeneuve have written up an interesting attack they’ve dubbed LURID on diplomatic missions, government ministries, space-related government agencies and other companies and research institutions in the former Soviet bloc and its allies. (Only China was not a Soviet bloc member or ally in the list, and it was the … Read more

Strip CAPTCHA Spam

Whatever useful stuff the good guys come up with, the bad guys ain’t far behind. A few months back I wrote about researchers at Carnegie Mellon coming up with a way to use CAPTCHA tools to help decipher words in text by the Internet Archive. The basic idea is that the effort to prevent spammers … Read more

Helping the World, Ripple by Ripple

God, I love simple ideas. This is great one (tip of hat to Lifehack) because it’s already working. By doing your search through Melbourne-based ripple, and looking at an ad, you direct the cents your eyeballs earn to charity. A few hours after launch the difference is already being felt: In our first 48 hours … Read more

The Charting Of An Urban Myth? Or A Double Bluff?

Here’s a cautionary tale from Vmyths, the virus myths website, on how urban legends are born. Vmyths says that Reuters News Agency filed a report from Singapore last week quoting anti-virus manufacturer Trend Micro (makers of PC-cillin) as saying computer virus attacks cost global businesses an estimated $55 billion in damages in 2003. That’s a lot … Read more