Friday 31 March 2006

I See It's Already April 1st in Australia

From the Must Try Harder department:

Google's quantum-based spam filtering launch was thrown into chaos today due to Microsoft Windows's inability to cope with Australia's daylight savings changes ... It uses quantum computing to reduce Gmail inboxes to an sub-atomic level, at which point the unusual laws of quantum physics allow Google to analyse infinite amounts of spam instantaneously ... The resulting quantum fluctuations created a feedback loop which engulfed London's Supercomputing Methods Experimental Group (SMEG) research centre where the project is based ... SMEG spokeswoman Shirley Knott was beside herself.
Oh brother.

Thursday 30 March 2006

Virus Alerts are as Bad as Spam

Many email security products or services will warn you if they detect a virus in an incoming message. You'll receive a Virus Alert message in your inbox that either includes the original plain text message with the attachment stripped out, or has just a simple notification that "so-and-so sent you a virus, and click here to read the message in the quarantine." The intention is that you can contact the sender and tell them that they have a virus on their PC.

The problem is that these days, most virus-infected email is been sent not by users, but by other viruses. It's effectively spam, except the motivation is to take over your computer, not to sell you ... uhhh ... things. The viruses will often use the same lists of recipients as spammers do. Naturally, there's no point in contacting the "sender" of the message -- it's probably forged.

The upshot is that these virus alerts messages are now just as bad as spam. Only a tiny proportion of them are any use. Email security solutions should be more selective of which messages they warn about.

Why I've been Quiet

Sorry I've been quiet for a bit. Did you miss me?

It turns out I caught chickenpox on the flight over to the RSA conference (no, I'd not caught it as a child). Once I got home, my body revolted. Don't worry, I'm fine now.

For someone who's never even had the flu, being bedridden for a week was a bit of a culture shock, I can tell you.

disgusting picture of richi