Larry Seltzer

Microsoft is claiming that there will be no security updates in December, but its beginning to look like there should be. Two significant problems have crept up in the past week and theyre serious enough that Microsoft should rethink its monthly schedule plans. The first problem involves a new way for attackers to breach network […]

We appear to be on the verge of having a national law on the problem of spam. The CAN-SPAM act would preempt the numerous attempts that have been made by various states to regulate the issue. (Heres a PDF file of the latest version of the bill.) Theres a lot of common sense in the […]

On some days, life in the security business is more depressing than on others. My recent reading about Mimail.L, the latest in a long line of sociopathic worms, tipped me into the blues. Mimail.L is particularly vile. Here are some of the actions it takes: It arrives as a pornographic e-mail with an attached ZIP […]

As I said in my 2004 Outlook column, our e-mail accounts are now filled with some recent advances in the field of “phishing.” If you havent been paying attention, the term refers to a particular type of Internet scam in which a user is tricked into giving up personal information, like bank account information. According […]

Its hard to say that 2003 has been a good year for security, but conscientious IT staff can feel good about their odds in the battle for security. You can protect yourself. But the arms race with attackers is getting nasty, and 2004 will be harder. Theres no doubt in my mind that the biggest […]

Do you ever get spam offering to sell you fake IDs? Heres one reason why some people want to buy one: a fake ID, a fax machine, and an absence of morals are all thats needed to hijack any domain name. Yes, stealing a domain name from its rightful owners still appears to be childs […]

At Comdex earlier this week, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced that the company would release an anti-spam filter, the Intelligent Message Filter for Microsoft Exchange 2003. This filter implements the same “SmartScreen technology” in MSN mail, Hotmail, and Outlook 2003. Suddenly, the analyst circuit lit up with concerns about the damage this would cause to […]

I remember my first Comdex even though more than a dozen years have passed. At that time, it was a must-attend event for the IT pro. Comdex was like going to the Super Bowl—the extravagance was completely over the top. Still, even then I could see that getting everyone together in one place could become […]

Users have been reporting problems with some of the security patches and other updates recently released by Microsoft Corp. The Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer, which addresses numerous security flaws in Internet Explorer 6, introduces bugs involving the scrollbar. After the patch is applied, the page scrolls up or down twice when the user […]

Microsoft began to talk about the upcoming Service Pack 2 for Windows XP at its recent There was a time when service packs were mostly just bunches of individual patches consolidated into a single program. Sure, there were new features in them but they were subtle features, like a new tab on a dialog box. […]

If you use e-mail regularly, the spam clogging your in-box has no doubt reached the point where you cant continue without doing something about it. Fortunately, spam-blocking utilities and services for both individuals and corporations have improved by leaps and bounds over the past year, drastically cutting the amount of spam you receive while reducing […]

After I completed the testing and writing for PC Magazines recent Antispam product roundups, I decided it was time eat my own dog food, to use a phrase I believe was coined by Microsofts David Cutler. It refers to using the products you try to get your customers to use. Basically the business version of […]