Steve Riley on Security

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Today’s spam: Here’s what’s in my junk mail folder today: What is up with all that? Apparently I sent a payment to myself, I initiated another payment to myself, I am a user of myself who’s received exclusive offers for January, and I received a payment from myself. Read More...
Posted 21 January 09 10:13 by Steve Riley | 12 Comments
Filed under spam, email, things that make me angry
The opt-out from hell: One problem with making your email address available (which I will continue to do, don't worry) is that folks with something to sell assume you're interested in their stuff. To wit, let's consider an email I received today (copied, headers and all, after Read More...
Posted 16 September 08 12:22 by Steve Riley | 8 Comments
Filed under advertising, spam, email, things that make me angry, public policy
FanBox: the latest in password scams: Looks like spammers have found yet another way to worm (ha ha) themselves into the computers of the unsuspecting. In my junk email folder this morning, I saw this message: From: Question It [mailto:question_it@fanboxapps.com] Sent: Monday, January 07, Read More...
Posted 07 January 08 10:09 by Steve Riley | 4 Comments
Filed under spam, email, things that make me angry, things that make me worried
Bogus Microsoft sweepstakes emails: Over the past month I've received at least three enquiries from people asking about the legitimacy of emails claiming the recipients have won large amounts of money in a Microsoft sweepstakes or lottery -- often 500,000 British pounds. This is an easy Read More...
Posted 19 August 07 03:35 by Steve Riley | 13 Comments
Filed under false claims, spam, email
Tell us about the junk email you receive: Another gem in the download center: an Outlook (2003/2007) add-in with which you can report junk email to FrontBridge. Junk E-mail Reporting Tool 1.0 for Outlook The Junk E-mail Reporting Tool submits e-mail to Microsoft when you explicitly choose to Read More...
Posted 20 December 06 03:53 by Steve Riley | 5 Comments
Filed under spam, email, malware
My blog is not a forum for advertisements: It's bad enough that the blasted spammers pollute the value of blogs and open forums by hijacking them with their nefarious comments for questionable pharmaceuticals claiming to extend particular body parts. I have recently received, only via private Read More...
Posted 30 September 06 10:17 by Steve Riley | 9 Comments
Filed under advertising, blogging, spam, things that make me angry
F*#$!@g spam!: Yeah, it's been a while since I've written a post, and I have some ideas I'll get to once the prep work for TechEd this year settles down a bit. But look -- why in the world do the freaking spammers have to start targetting blogs now? I keep my comments Read More...
Posted 31 May 06 12:31 by Steve Riley | 16 Comments
Filed under blogging, spam, things that make me angry
Cluelessness abounds: So yesterday I received a rather interesting email. Subject: "INFOSEC Scholarships & Fellowships for PhD or MS + Free CISSP Exam Prep Events." Hm, I didn't know that "information security" suddenly became an all-caps acronym. How come no one asks Read More...
Posted 14 September 05 09:08 by Steve Riley | 2 Comments
Filed under advertising, spam, security theater, email, things that make me laugh
Bug in the book: Appendix C, hosts file: Somehow this escaped our notice during the proof phase, but the hosts file that's printed in the book (and burned on the CD-ROM) is completely bogus. It actually blocks a number of very good sites that have anti-spyware software and even blocks MVPS.org, Read More...
Posted 28 June 05 09:49 by Steve Riley | 0 Comments
Filed under spam, configuration, my book