As we enter National Identity Fraud Awareness Week, the story of Monster.com's security breach just seems to get worse.
What amazes me is just how little coverage this is getting in the media. This story is huge with not only millions of accounts at risk, but the company seems to have no idea of how many accounts have been compromised.
Even more disturbing is how this scam works, it relies on infected machines running software that logs onto to Monster's database, looks up candidate details and sends the results to spammers and phishers who then use the addresses to spread more spam and malware.
What really concerns me is that I've received a few of these type of emails purporting to be from Seek and MyCareer. I'm wondering if the same scam is at work on these sites as well.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Dodgy cheques and laser printers
On the techno-fraud front, the Consumerist has an article on the surge in fake bank cheques due to high quality laser printers.
Given fake cheques are a favourite trick of Ebay and 419 fraudsters, it's really important not to trust cheques unless they have come from someone you know.
It also pays to be very cautious of foreign cheques. It can take quite a while for a cheque drawn on a foreign bank to be cleared. If you've sent goods or given money to people based on one of these cheques you might be in for a nasty surprise a month or two down the track.
Personally, I'd be very reluctant to accept any cheque drawn on an institution I've never heard of. If I did, I'd be making doubly sure it had cleared before acting on it.
Given fake cheques are a favourite trick of Ebay and 419 fraudsters, it's really important not to trust cheques unless they have come from someone you know.
It also pays to be very cautious of foreign cheques. It can take quite a while for a cheque drawn on a foreign bank to be cleared. If you've sent goods or given money to people based on one of these cheques you might be in for a nasty surprise a month or two down the track.
Personally, I'd be very reluctant to accept any cheque drawn on an institution I've never heard of. If I did, I'd be making doubly sure it had cleared before acting on it.
Vista Service Pack 1 Beta
The announcement the first Vista Service Pack is about be released in beta is welcome news.
Experienced Microsoft customers know that waiting for the first service pack is a really good idea with a new MS operating system so the release of SP1 will spark the so far lacklustre sales of Vista.
What should be emphasised is that non-techy users shouldn't go within miles of a beta release. The computer industry is unique in this practice of releasing products that might not work so the general population can test.
It's akin to the motor industry giving away a new model car for testing, figuring that they'll save on the cost of crash test dummies.
Would you accept a free car on the basis that the brakes might fail, the airbags might kill the passengers and the whole thing might randomly burst into flames? Well that's what a beta release is.
To be fair to Microsoft they aren't making this available through mass market channels, it will only be available through the MS Developers Network and Technet.
We should also point out that at least MS beta test their major releases rather than using paying customers as crash test dummies which I'm convinced certain anti-virus companies do.
It's good MS are working on the Vista service pack, now we have to ask is where is the XP service pack three? The thing is two years overdue and it's becoming an embarrassment.
Experienced Microsoft customers know that waiting for the first service pack is a really good idea with a new MS operating system so the release of SP1 will spark the so far lacklustre sales of Vista.
What should be emphasised is that non-techy users shouldn't go within miles of a beta release. The computer industry is unique in this practice of releasing products that might not work so the general population can test.
It's akin to the motor industry giving away a new model car for testing, figuring that they'll save on the cost of crash test dummies.
Would you accept a free car on the basis that the brakes might fail, the airbags might kill the passengers and the whole thing might randomly burst into flames? Well that's what a beta release is.
To be fair to Microsoft they aren't making this available through mass market channels, it will only be available through the MS Developers Network and Technet.
We should also point out that at least MS beta test their major releases rather than using paying customers as crash test dummies which I'm convinced certain anti-virus companies do.
It's good MS are working on the Vista service pack, now we have to ask is where is the XP service pack three? The thing is two years overdue and it's becoming an embarrassment.
Appreciating your tech
One of the more saddening parts of being a computer tech is how little your skills are really appreciated.
A good example was yesterday, the first job had been locked out of her computer. The fix for this is usually quite easy and it only took twenty minutes to reset the admin password. When that was fixed she asked to setup a new profile which took another half hour.
So the total time was an hour. Her response?
I didn't expect it to be that expensive?
I mean, FFS! Thanks lady for the appreciation.
In the afternoon I did another job, this was for a client I hadn't seen for years. It took me ninety minutes to fix the spyware infection that had crippled her wireless connection.
Her thanks?
I hope I don't have to see again.
Gee lady, thanks.
One of my staff told me yesterday about the client who thought the three hour job he did on Monday should have been simple to fix in half an hour. It reminds me of the Dilbert principle that anything you don't understand must be simple to do.
On a related topic referring to yesterday's rant about Symantec I was delighted to note the first client's computer was almost new and the Norton, which was supplied with the computer, was defective.
Just to prove it's not just Norton, the afternoon job had a fully subscribed and up to date McAfee Internet security suite which had let a number of spyware packages on and allowed them to damage the TCP/IP stack.
Dealing with ungrateful customers and incompetent software vendors is why it makes this industry such a challenge.
If you really want to cultivate a good relationship with a computer tech, don't whine about the bill, time or insult them if they've done a good job.
A good example was yesterday, the first job had been locked out of her computer. The fix for this is usually quite easy and it only took twenty minutes to reset the admin password. When that was fixed she asked to setup a new profile which took another half hour.
So the total time was an hour. Her response?
I didn't expect it to be that expensive?
I mean, FFS! Thanks lady for the appreciation.
In the afternoon I did another job, this was for a client I hadn't seen for years. It took me ninety minutes to fix the spyware infection that had crippled her wireless connection.
Her thanks?
I hope I don't have to see again.
Gee lady, thanks.
One of my staff told me yesterday about the client who thought the three hour job he did on Monday should have been simple to fix in half an hour. It reminds me of the Dilbert principle that anything you don't understand must be simple to do.
On a related topic referring to yesterday's rant about Symantec I was delighted to note the first client's computer was almost new and the Norton, which was supplied with the computer, was defective.
Just to prove it's not just Norton, the afternoon job had a fully subscribed and up to date McAfee Internet security suite which had let a number of spyware packages on and allowed them to damage the TCP/IP stack.
Dealing with ungrateful customers and incompetent software vendors is why it makes this industry such a challenge.
If you really want to cultivate a good relationship with a computer tech, don't whine about the bill, time or insult them if they've done a good job.
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