"Spam isn't a technical problem, it's a social one." John Levine on why there is little point in devising a more secure alternative to the SMTP email standard. The reason that e-mail is uniquely useful is that you can exchange mail with people you don't already know. The reason that spam exists is that you can exchange mail with people you don't already know.

So far Twitter has been relatively free of spam. Sure there's a few "bots" following large numbers of members (and hoping their following will be reciprocated) but otherwise spam hasn't been too big an issue. That could change though should more determined types exploit the "reply spam" option though. The defence against spam followers is not to click on their links and not to follow them back. But, ... Read full entry

With the increasing usage of IP telephony, and phones calls made via internet connections, Spam Over Internet Telephony, or SPIT, could become a far bigger problem than email spam. Spit is particularly annoying because a call is more intrusive than a spam email. What's more, spam filters don't block spit since the content of a call is only known once it has been made. Existing [but not ... Read full entry

One of Australia's largest retail banks, NAB has taken to leaving spam comments on blogs as part of a targeted promotion for a new product, according to an article published at Crikey today. The bank apparently thought they'd "give it a try" as "blogs are a public forum", and believed that blog moderators would delete any comments they felt were inappropriate. Another way of saying they didn't contact ... Read full entry

The Internet's Space Shortage So much for the notion that there is "unlimited space on the internet"... The problem, says Leslie Daigle, chief Internet technology officer for the non-profit Internet Society, is simple math: the Internet Protocol addresses that are assigned to differentiate networks and individual computers at the edges of the Internet have 32 digits, allowing for only a finite number of addresses - about 4.2 billion. That may ... Read full entry

E-mail inventor: I didn't foresee spam Ray Tomlinson, the creator of email, or the "Send Message Program" as it was originally named, laments the rise of spam in what is an otherwise fascinating article on the history of email. One problem he had with the first e-mail program was finding a way to separate the person to whom one was addressing a message from the computer or network they were ... Read full entry

Riddle me this: why are there no spam or trolls on Twitter? Answer: Because it's rather like an RSS feed - you choose to read it - and nobody so far has worked out how to spam a feed. I wonder if that is really so? (The bit about Twitter being troll free, not the bit about spamming a RSS feed)

How to successfully spam blogs (and how to fight back) Now I know why Superman has comments disabled on his blog (... with apologies to Batman)... You may have noticed legitimate looking comments on your blog from people with suspect names. Usually the name will be a brand name, service or literally anything that sells. The commenter's website is obviously related to that business. Why do they bother using special keywords ... Read full entry

The Perfect Storm. An interesting article about the Storm botnet which I briefly mentioned a few weeks ago. The Storm computer virus had been spreading since early in the year, grabbing control of PCs around the world. By now, Storm had infected nearly 5-10 million computers with a secret program that turned those PCs into unwilling slaves (or "zombies") of those controlling this network (or botnet) of computers.Many of you ... Read full entry

Apple and Google ruled a year to note in your Facebook. John Naughton a technology writer with The Observer sums up 2007, and makes a few predictions for the new year. Next year will see mass outbreaks of a Facebook fatigue, as busy professionals realise they are wasting an hour or more a day on essentially mindless activities. By contrast, activity-based networking sites, such as Flickr.com, will continue to ... Read full entry