Text 45856, 59 rader
Skriven 2008-05-14 09:39:39 av Alan Zisman (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 45855 av JAY EMRIE (1:123/140)
Ärende: Spam
============
JAY EMRIE -> ALAN ZISMAN wrote:

 JE>>>> I am having an odd but welcome experience.
 JE>>>> Until very recently I have been receiving
 JE>>>> 20-40 spams a day - sometimes more.
 JE>>>> Suddenly - without any changes in my
 JE>>>> computer - I am now receiving 10 at the most.

 JE>>>> No complaints - just happy!

 TW>>> Sounds like your ISP finaly got it's act together and is doing some
 TW>>> filtering.
 TW>>> I don't understand why more don't do it.

 AZ>> The webmaster of my employer's network commented to me a few weeks
 JE> ago that
 AZ>> they were being deluged by a large increase in spam-- it may have
 JE> abated.

 AZ>> There's been discussion at a recent security conference of a big drop
 JE> in the
 AZ>> number of computer infested with Storm-- which had been acting as
 JE> spam servers;
 AZ>> Microsoft claimed that this was proof of the effectiveness of their
 JE> Malicious
 AZ>> Software Removal Tool-- now included with Windows Update-- though other
 AZ>> security companies disagreed.

 AZ>> But in any event, fewer zombie Storm servers should equal less spam--
 AZ>> regardless of the effectiveness of ISP filters.

 JE> Alan, I googled Storm, storm server and was quit surprised at what I
 JE> saw. Some of those programs may well be suckering in people.

You betcha.... typically through the old standby of email attachments that
appear to be digital images because of the Windows default of hiding 3-letter
file extensions for 'registered file types'... so name a piece of malware
"Naked Anna.jpg.exe" and on most Windows systems it will appear to be a jpg
image rather than an executible program.

One of Microsoft's more bone-headed design decisions, made for Win95 and still
in effect today. And all in a misguided effort to imitate the Mac OS, which
doesn't require file extensions to know about file types.

Ironically, Apple is trying harder to support file extensions-- when I have a
file on my desktop on my Mac, and click to rename it, the filename becomes
highlighted-- but not the extension, making it easier to rename the file while
leaving the extension alone. I can rename the extension-- but it takes extra
effort.


-- 
==================================
- email: alan (at) zisman (dot) ca
- website: http://www.zisman.ca
(running on Mac OS X)

--- Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 (Macintosh/20080421)
 * Origin: The Eastern Star - Fidonet Via Your Newsreader (1:123/789.0)