Microsoft and Pfizer are after the Viagara Spammers — as yet unknown — according to Security Focus. Microsoft is upset because the target of many of the mails are hotmail accounts, costing unnecessary bandwidth and creating a nuisance for the users. Pfizer on the other hand is concerned because the Viagara isn’t it’s Viagara, and they are losing money. Nothing seems to indicate that it isn’t the real stuff, but would you want medicines from just anywhere? Well if you respond to the spam that is what you are getting.

In other news in the same article, Earthlink is after spammers as well. As an Earthlink account holder, I hope they succeed, because I get many times the spam on my Earthlink accounts that I get elsewhere, even though those addresses have never been published on the web. The addresses I have published on the web do get spam, but nothing like what I get on Earthlink. It makes you wonder how those addresses have gotten around.

Much has happened worthy of a mention today, firstly is the long running law suit between IBM and SCO over Linux, Federal Judge Kimball denied IBM’s motion for a summary judgement, but did so in a manner that shows that he seriously doubts the merits of SCO’s case.

“Despite the vast disparity between SCO’s public accusations and its actual evidence–or complete lack thereof–and the resulting temptation to grant IBM’s motion, the court has determined that it would be premature to grant summary judgement,” Kimball wrote. “Viewed against the backdrop of SCO’s plethora of public statements concerning IBM’s and others’ infringement of SCO’s purported copyrights to the Unix software, it is astonishing that SCO has not offered any competent evidence to create a disputed fact regarding whether IBM has infringed SCO’s alleged copyrights through IBM’s Linux activities.”

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Can’t figure out what font a particular design is using and are desperate to be able to use the same font yourself? Check out what the font, which lets you upload a file for free and analyzes the glyphs of the file and suggests similar fonts. Separating letters into individual files can often lead to better results, and sometimes what the font doesn’t quite get it, but I’ve been pleased with it’s successful identification on numerous occasions.

Symantec, makes of popular Anti-virus and Anti-spam products, has revealed that nearly all of it’s products are affected by a potentially very serious security flaw. The details are here. Updates to the products will no doubt fix the issue, so you should head over to symantec and see what they have for you.

This really makes me angry. A guy in Florida is suing the Bank of America because he had a Trojan Horse (a type of Virus) on his computer that resulted in money being stolen from his bank account. His lawyers are claiming that the bank knew about the dangers of such Viruses, and didn’t warn him. They also claim that the bank was lax in allowing such large transfers to a scam infested region of the world. The later complaint is the only one that is even remotely valid as far as I am concerned.

Think about it, the bank sets up an online banking system, they use SSL encryption, and do all the usual security stuff and market the service to their customers. Then along comes a guy, he doesn’t know much about PC’s, he apparently doesn’t have a decent up to date Virus scanner running, doesn’t know anything about securing his own computer, which when using Windows is VERY important, and his own computer gets infected by a Trojan horse program from something he did. (like visiting a malicious web page in Internet Explorer, or running a file in an E-mail).
The Trojan on his own computer results in his user details being stolen and he then claims the bank is at fault for not protecting him from his own ignorance and stupidity. If the bank was to notify it’s customers every time a new Virus comes out, they would be accused of spamming their clients, because about 1500 new Windows Viruses come out every month. With all the mainstream press new Viruses are getting these days, people have no excuse for not knowing they need an anti-virus product when using Windows.
If he was going to sue anyone, he should sue Microsoft for writing operating systems that made web browsing and reading E-mail dangerous. (don’t get any idea’s, if you clicked “I agree” to the Windows licence agreement, then you’ve agreed that Microsoft can only be liable for the amount the software cost you.) It is crazy to expect the bank to be liable because you didn’t take any steps to protect your own computer. That’s like suing your bank because you didn’t lock your house and somebody came in and stole your wallet.

If you are unsure that you are protected, then head over to tips.littlehosting.com and download the free programs to protect yourself from Viruses and Spyware. See TheRegister for more on the story.

A recent report by the Nielsen Norman Group details the browsing trends of teenagers and the results are very interesting from a web design perspective. Apparently teenagers are a fickle lot, and like sites with big writing and lots of pictures and a stylish layout and more then that, they are more likely to stick around on interactive sites.
Sites that show respect for teenagers and cover the issues important to them are more likely to gather that audience, and considering this age group are the future adults, and already account for a significant percentage of the web using public, they are an important audience to target. Read more here.

Microsoft has just released a big bunch of security updates, (on the first Tuesday of each month). Many (8) are important security fixes so if you’re on Windows, get them loaded folks.
In other Microsoft news, they have just bought another anti-virus company, this one is called Sybari Software and the other anti-virus companies stock prices all took minor dives when the news came out. Symantec, the makes of the Norton Internet Security products where not very happy about Microsoft encroaching on their territory but wanted to be nice about it, you can read what they had to say here.