Blackhacker

Today must really be a special day. I’m doing MSFT dirty work and telling you about Zune. In case you where under the same rock as me, (I just found out about this today) Zune will be MSFT’s answer to the Apples iPod. The link just points you to a stupid little flash movie and then asks you for your email addy and those of your “family & friends”, a reference to the old MCI promotion. Engadget Has a good write up on what is known about the MSFT soon coming portable media player.

I will say this, if the player is half decent, Apple could have a fight on their hands because, MSFT as something that AAPL dosen’t. All that liquid cash sitting around like Scrooge McDuck’s money bin. And also according the enageget they play to use it, to pay for you to re-download all of the DRMed up itunes media, making switching MUCH easier.

Don’t forget that MSFT’s gonna need that money ’cause, AAPL’s secrete weapon is good will. People who use Apple LOVE Apple. People who use Microsoft, tolerate it. Its gonna need to spend ALOT of money to get people to switch to this new player. And it gotta do at the expense of partners in PlaysForSure, like Napster.

Well it should be interesting.

I thought I had seen everything, But I was wrong
Dap:CNET

Well its not really a social net because I don’t see any one who takes part can communicate. So there is not social or net in this socialnet. The site is a marketing ploy to bolster sales from the teenage crowd as they prepare to go back to school. Irma Zandl of youth-marketing firm Zandl Group:

adage
“Over the last year, we have been getting increasingly bad feedback from teen girls about Wal-Mart in contrast to Target — especially Wal-Mart’s apparent lack of cleanliness, messy layout and lack of stylish attire. “

OK So you are receiving complaints about the service, selection, and operation of your core product (your store) and your answer is to … launch a website?

1. Fire Irma Zandl She is either stupid or too afraid to tell you that you have issues that you can not over come with marketing.
2. Clean up you stores Maybe things are different in the South or the out west but in Jersey EVERY SINGLE WALMART IS A HOLE. If they didn’t have the cheapest stuff in town there would be no reason to go. It is not a PLEASURE to shop there … like it is at Target.
3. Get a PILE of money together and start getting the most popular stars appearing on Nickelodeon, The N (Noggin after Dark), and the Disney Channel and start making some commercials, and have them appearing in public with cloths available from Walmart.

If these steps are followed you will again return to the status of supreme rulers of the universe.

Netcraft is reporting an ongoing phishing attack against Citibank customers that use Two Factor Authentication. You have to admire the elegance of the attack. The article does a good job of describing the attack, so i won’t do it here. But I will add the most successful data security breaches focus on the weakest part of any security system … the human element. Phishing is no different. Here are some tips to keep you safe from phishing:

1. Be wary of emails that ask you to update user information. Most legitimate financial sites, like banks and credit cards have disaster recover plans. Information is backuped daily, and shipped off site for safe keeping. They will NEVER have to ask you to update information because of “computer failure.” It is unheard of in the industry these days. In fact it is against the policy of Ebay, to even send such a message. So when you receive such and email reporting to be from Ebay, or Paypal, simply forward it to spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com respectively and then delete it.
2. Don’t click on links in emails to websites where sensitive info is stored. That is exactly how phishig is accomplished. Instead bookmark for easy access the sites where sensitive personal data or finances are stored, like your bank, credit card, and paypal accounts.
3. Download and install the Netcraft Security Toolbar. It displays a risk ratings of every website you visit. And warns you when you try to access a suspected phishing site.

Lotus Notes for Linux announced
For years, Linux users who wanted or needed to use Lotus Notes have been forced to run it under WINE or in a virtual machine. That will soon change, as Lotus Notes on Linux will be released for Red Hat Enterprise Linux v4 update 3 with full support from IBM. By year end, Big Blue will also support SUSE Linux for Enterprise Desktops 10 as well as the upcoming Novell desktop Linux.

Wow. I didn’t know Notes was still so popular. Just remember anything that runs on Linux also runs on FreeBSD

Yahoo! and Microsoft Bridge Global Instant Messaging Communities: Beta testing of unprecedented interoperability between Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger with Voice lets users communicate across IM services.
SUNNYVALE, Calif., and REDMOND, Wash. — July 12, 2006 — Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: “YHOO”) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: “MSFT”) today will begin limited public beta testing of interoperability between their instant messaging (IM) services that enable users of Windows Live® Messenger, the next generation of MSN® Messenger, and Yahoo!® Messenger with Voice to connect with each other. This interoperability — the first of its kind between two distinct, global consumer IM providers — will form the world’s largest consumer IM community, approaching 350 million accounts.1

One of the most frustrating things about IM is that people on different systems can not communicate. AOL(link), Yahoo! and Microsoft have kept it this way. Only Google has opened it network in a standard way that allows interoperability. Unfortunatly NONE of the large IM services have taken GOOG up on the offer yet. Well YHOO and MSFT are holding a limited public beta to test interoperability between those two services. Naturally they wish to combine forces and take on AIM(link) which I believe is still the dominant IM and the ever looming threat of Google. Maybe someday ALL of the big IM services will embrace XMPP or some other open standard that allows any service to “talk” with any other service and we will have a truly ubiquities IM communication that would surpass the phone, the postal system and even email. And hopefully this will happen before I loose my sight to cataracts.

One if my favorite series of commercials are the Citibank ones that show the victims of ID Theft talking in the voice of those who have stolen from them.
The NY Times has an interesting piece about a real serial ID Thief. While this peace does a good job of Chronicling, the perpetrators, history as an ID Thief, and covering the motivations, or at least what he tells us where is motivations, this being the NY Times and not a publication more technically oriented, it only glosses over the how. Basically the guy said he just used phishing. To get the needed data, or bought data from online brokers of stolen data. I’m more interested in some of the social engineering, beyond phishing that would be necessary, for him to pull of some of his scams. Or how he would be able to show up at a dealership with 27,000 in cash, in cash i mean actual currency, And him being able to walk out with a vehicle no questions asked. In order for someone his age, to live such an expensive life style, with perceivable source of income, he has got to be part con artists. I want to know about that. Knowledge about the con is the only way we can craft policies, and procedures to defend against them.

BetaNews
“Based on its reporting after the May 11 article, USA Today has now concluded that while the NSA has built a massive domestic calls record database involving the domestic call records of telecommunications companies, the newspaper cannot confirm that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the NSA to provide bulk calling records to that database,” the paper said in a second page note to its readers.

The paper does stand by the assertion that the NSA Program exists and the AT&T and possible MCI participated. I’m gonna sound a little Red State here but MSM has been VERY sloppy lately. When those charged with bringing you the news become the story we are in a world or trouble. When you have a story as HUGE as this, anything that smells funny will be highlighted and exposed to the world. (I guess we are over due for a Conservative blog swarm.)