November 2006 Archives
This is quite a user friendly offering called Diino it has a free option that allows you to store up to 2GB of data. The prices for bigger packages seem pretty reasonable too. Not to sure about all the added extras such as email and blog facility, but maybe that's just me.
Probably a good option for the home user looking to keep a select few precious documents safely backed up
Probably a good option for the home user looking to keep a select few precious documents safely backed up
Although these are on the wane as pump and dump and diet pills are becoming more popular for spammers, they are still doing the rounds. Enter Phishtank - a collaborative and free to use effort to identify phishing attempts. You can report what you suspect is a phish, but the fun but is in verifying potential phishes that have been reported by other users. It's a bit like a geek equivalent of HotOrNot.
Do your bit and join up!
Do your bit and join up!
As this article in The Guardian shows, the new biometric passports are easy to crack. Within a few hours your biometric details can be read off the chip in the passport. Once your neighbourhood criminal has that information, cloning your passport is one step closer.
I think it's been said thousands of times now, but strong passwords are as important as strong encryption. More importantly, is there really a need to have your unencrypted biometric data on the passport at all? One way encryption - using a suitably strong method - would still provide a unique pattern that only your biometrics could result in, but prove near impossible for someone to determine your biometrics from.
This is more significant because the government intend to store biometrics, and other private information, on the compulsory ID cards they're determined to introduce at great cost. With a centralised database containing these same details, and a plastic card also containing these details, and no measures in the legislation to punish abusers of the system, the scope for your identity being stolen, or your details being falsely linked with crimes, increases rapidly.
The government have taken another measure to ensure our privacy is further eroded with the new NHS central database containing your medical records. With over 250,000 access cards issued for the system, and again no penalties in the legislation for misuse, do they seriously think that your medical details will not be leaked or stolen?
The breathtaking arrogance of this government's pursuit of ill-conceived, poorly executed ideas that amount to serious assaults on our privacy for vague, insubstantial benefits to the greater good is only matched by their arrogant assuredness of the existence of WMDs in Iraq.
When the state exercises such cavalier fecklessness with other people's property, we should all be worried. The legacy of these decisions is going to be with us for generations, and it's going to be costly.
I think it's been said thousands of times now, but strong passwords are as important as strong encryption. More importantly, is there really a need to have your unencrypted biometric data on the passport at all? One way encryption - using a suitably strong method - would still provide a unique pattern that only your biometrics could result in, but prove near impossible for someone to determine your biometrics from.
This is more significant because the government intend to store biometrics, and other private information, on the compulsory ID cards they're determined to introduce at great cost. With a centralised database containing these same details, and a plastic card also containing these details, and no measures in the legislation to punish abusers of the system, the scope for your identity being stolen, or your details being falsely linked with crimes, increases rapidly.
The government have taken another measure to ensure our privacy is further eroded with the new NHS central database containing your medical records. With over 250,000 access cards issued for the system, and again no penalties in the legislation for misuse, do they seriously think that your medical details will not be leaked or stolen?
The breathtaking arrogance of this government's pursuit of ill-conceived, poorly executed ideas that amount to serious assaults on our privacy for vague, insubstantial benefits to the greater good is only matched by their arrogant assuredness of the existence of WMDs in Iraq.
When the state exercises such cavalier fecklessness with other people's property, we should all be worried. The legacy of these decisions is going to be with us for generations, and it's going to be costly.
This is an interesting approach to reducing spam. The basic idea is to slow down SMTP server responses to incoming mail commands, such as that spammers either give up on the connection or are left hanging around waiting to complete the transaction for a long period. This article is a good summary of how it works. It also suggests the idea originated in Germany, although I have seen other, apparently independent, developments along the same lines (although I can't remember where).
Basically, spammers need to send lots of mail. The more the merrier. They send millions. Often they will not wait for slow SMTP servers because they reduce their productivity. Tar pitting often results in spam just not being sent (via that server) at all because of this. Even if they do wait for slow connections the slow down reduces the throughput of the spammer. Less spam, overall, is being sent. As you can see from the article above, aggressive tar pitting can keep a spammer tied up for days waiting to complete a mail transaction. The more they are tied up trying to send, the more it costs them in time and therefore money. And that hurts spammers because their only goal is to make money, not spend it.
Basically, spammers need to send lots of mail. The more the merrier. They send millions. Often they will not wait for slow SMTP servers because they reduce their productivity. Tar pitting often results in spam just not being sent (via that server) at all because of this. Even if they do wait for slow connections the slow down reduces the throughput of the spammer. Less spam, overall, is being sent. As you can see from the article above, aggressive tar pitting can keep a spammer tied up for days waiting to complete a mail transaction. The more they are tied up trying to send, the more it costs them in time and therefore money. And that hurts spammers because their only goal is to make money, not spend it.
Continue reading Tar pitting - a way to reduce spam.
