Just when I thought I had it under Control

[morganlefay]

Just when I thought I had it "somewhat" under Control

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...echnology/home

Beware the sophisticated style of spam to come

CALGARY — Unless new weapons are designed to keep junk mail at bay, spammers are about to get the upper hand in the war in cyberspace.

Canadian researchers have figured out a way to create spam that could bypass the best filters and trick even the most savvy computer users into opening messages they would normally delete.

Mischief-makers would use this kind of spam -- which employs hijacked computers to make sophisticated e-mail messages that appear to be from people known to computer users -- to release viruses, worms or spyware on unsuspecting users or expose them to theft of personal information.

No more adding senders to junk mail

MLF

[preacherman481]

This and another article I've read recently make me wonder when the average user might say, "Hey, enough is enough. It's too dangerous for me to have a computer on the Internet." MLF, how far do you think we are from that?

[morganlefay]

Personally...I dont think that average user would say that.....

I know people who really dont care they infected with spyware\viruses\trojans

Just as long as it doesnt affect the performance of thier games,...and p0rn browsing etc

Its the affect on business I am concerned about...and the resources we are already using to filter\manage this crap

Already filtering on 2 levels.......and the amount filtered out...is more then the legit mail.

MLF

[thehorse13]

Simple solution to all of this. Use a text-based e-mail client such as Mutt.

Game-Set-Match.

PS
Yes, this is exactly what I do at home on meh personal host and I have VM sandboxes for the family because they can't live without Outlook. As soon as a nasty gets by or they get rooted, image restore. Wash, rinse, repeat.

--Th13

[morganlefay]

TH13

Its amazing how many people cant live without their html email and outlook....

or the internet for that matter.......I am made aware IMMEDIATELY if the mail or internet access is interrupted...for more than...lets say 2 minutes.

I have had to deal with this all week as our ISP is doing some much needed maintenance....

"when is it gonna be fixed"
"how long"
"should we be looking into another ISP'
BLAH BLAH BLAH

The interuptions are intermittant.....yes yes we were down once this week for almost an hour........and the world was coming to an end


bunch of fricken whinners

okay...I am better now.........just had to vent there.........sorry

MLF

[rapier57]

I feel for ya, MLF. Been there.

We have created something that is so ubiquitous and so reliable, that when there is the least little bump in the road, everyone panics and comes charging down the hall looking for the system admins.

Sometimes I think that the best thing we could do is limit email to two hours in the day. Say, from 10 to 11 am and 3 to 4 pm. Then turn off the pipe the rest of the time. What the heck did these people do before we _had_ email?

[tin.roof.rabbit]

What the heck did these people do before we _had_ email?

I remeber this technology... what was it called again... right Sneaker net.

[gore]

Originally posted here by thehorse13
Simple solution to all of this. Use a text-based e-mail client such as Mutt.

http://www.mutt.org

I use it too. I've been testing it out, and right now my current mbox (The default Mutt Mailbox) has :

21,930 email messages. It does take a while to load (About a second per 1,000 mails) but it doesn't really lag much or crash and I still check my email over SSH.

[brokencrow]

A good option for many users is to use web-based email systems like Yahoo or Hotmail. They'll have built-in virus and spam protection, thus any rogue attachments won't run so easily on the local machine.

The downside for advanced users, of course, is the lack of encryption.

Postcards anyone?