Diary of a Network Geek

Because having a disposable email means having privacy.

I hate spam. I mean, I really hate spam and spammers with a passion. As a system administrator, which is what I really am no matter what fancy title I may currently have, I can tell you that dealing with spam is the single most time-consuming and irritating thing about having an email server. The last time I checked, spam accounted for something like 75% of all email communication. The problem is, a lot of the time, to get the one thing you want from a site, you are forced to sign up for an email newsletter that you don’t really want. Now, don’t get me wrong, I actually like email newsletters. I subscribe to several and I’m even working on setting up one of my own. But, for those times you really just want the one “free” download a site is offering and don’t have any intention of coming back, what are you to do? Or, what if you’re not even sure that it’s a legitimate download or website? Maybe you’re afraid that a hacker has set up a site just to collect personal information, what then?
Well, then, you use nBox by notif.me to setup a free, anonymous and private “burner” email for any site you want to sign up for. You can then choose how and when you’re notified when they send something out. You can even delete the addresses you’ve used for sites you don’t want to be bothered with any more and *poof* they’re all gone, all at once.
And, yes, it’s free. How? Well, it’s free because it’s notif.me’s way of advertising and getting the word out about their service.
So, why not try it and take control of your email notifications this fine Friday?

Or, at least, all robocallers.

So, lately, I’ve been digging through my files, finding links I saved ages ago to share with you, my few loyal blog readers, and I’m the first to admit that it’s been a mixed bag.  Some have been fun.  Some have been lame.  But, this one actually solves a problem for you.

Do you get automated calls?  Maybe you signed up for a catalog ages ago, or maybe you thought that timeshare in Miami was going to…
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Wow, even computer crime is a “family” business these days!

Hey, look, I’m from Chicago, where you can’t hardly swing a dead cat and not hit a mobster, but this surprised even me!  Apparently, according to an article that ran on CNet, 85% of all stolen data last year was linked to some kind of organized crime.  And, 38% of data breaches used stolen credentials.

But, also, people are getting rich protecting us from the threats they create!  Seriously!  According to this article at eWeek, that’s just what some of the botnet crooks are doing.  And, remember, this is BIG business.  We’re not talking about a couple hundred infected PCs, we’re talking about tens of thousands.  There are websites dedicated to the buying and selling of the data these things collect and renting out the zombie PCs to do your dirty work, like send spam.  It’s big business and where there is big money to be made doing illegal things, there’s always been organized crime.

More and more, life is becoming like a William Gibson novel…

Good morning, Spammers, this quick note is just for you:

In response to your many SPAM comments and e-mails, no, we cannot exchange links.  I do not care to support your website that has nothing at all to do with anything I’m remotely interested in.  What’s more, I think you spammy, bottom-feeding, marketers of the lowest-common-denominator are the scourge of the internet and should be beaten.  Regularly.  When I link to a website, it’s either because I’ve used their product and liked it, it’s something I think is cool, or it’s run by a friend.  Anything else that is linked to from this website is part of one of the advertising programs that help pay for it.  It’s not free, and I found them.  They didn’t spam me with links and requests based on the fact that I rank well in Google.

So, no, I won’t participate in some random link-exchange with you, you parasites, and your anonymous, automated e-mails and comments will be deleted.

Thanks for asking!

Notice that I filed this under “Personal”?

Because, yeah, I take it quite personally. Damn bottom-feeder. Anyway, I’ve written up a little article about the whole thing and why it made me so mad. I actually have several copies of the article, as examples of what kind of thing he did to me. You can find them all at:
The “Original” Article
The First Copy
An Example of how he hacked my page
And, another one.

(Those last two are the same filename he used on his site.)

Well, maybe not entirely…

But, according to this article on Australian IT, it sure hasn’t had much effect. The law was supposed to stop unwanted “junk” e-mail completely, but it hasn’t quite done that. In fact, according to the article, it’s barely had any effect at all.
Frankly, I’m not surprised. That law didn’t really have much in the way of teeth. I know I could see that back when it was first proposed. Honestly, I couldn’t believe that lawmakers thought it would do any good at all! But, still, it got passed and it was at least something that headed in the right direction. Now, at least, there’s precedent for the law. Maybe they can draft new laws that will add a bit of oomph to the enforcement end of things. God knows, I’d love to stop the 50+ junk e-mails I get every day.
Oh, well, just remember, when you see people running for office that are in favor of stricter laws regarding this kind of thing, vote for them!

Now, we’re getting scientific on ’em!

No, really, SPAM killing has gotten to be such a science that Scientific American has run an article on it. So, the SPAMmers use bots? Now, anti-SPAMmers can use bots to defeat them. Now, that’s what I call better living through technology!

Okay, now it really is war!

According to this article on Boston.com, the spammers have started attacking spam-blocking lists with DOS attacks. In at least one case, that attack shut down the blocking list permanently! So, now, they’re going to force us to get their spam. I hope this can be traced and the scum doing this get shut down for good. Maybe even a little jail time. Yeah, that’d be nice…..

I always knew there was a connection!

According to this article on ZDNet, those scum of the Earth spammers are using viruses to take over innocent machines as spamming zombies. Probably the innocent victim has no idea that it’s even possible for their machine to send out thousands of unsolicited e-mail advertisements, much less that they’re actually doing it. This is a really, really disturbing new trend in virus/worm writing. Anyone caught writing a virus to do this should be taken out and horse-whipped before being trampled to death.