[SecurityRatty] tag: reap

The opt-out from hell

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:22:03 +0000

One problem with making your email address available (which I will continue to do, don't worry) is that folks with something to sell assume you're interested in their stuff. To wit, let's consider an email I received today (copied, headers and all, after my griping).

Note that if I want to opt out of further communications, I have to do two separate things -- which actually becomes three things.

First I have to click the last link to opt out of future TechTarget spam. (Yes, I deleted the actual links. But certainly none of my trustworthy readers would attempt to re-subscribe me, right...?
But that isn't enough -- I also have to separately opt out of future Avaya spam! (Why does the no-more-from-Avaya link live on a techtargetmail.com server? Whatever.) Clicking on that link eventually does land me on an avaya.com page, where I have to confirm my email address and indicate they don't have my permission to send me spam. Hmm, too difficult to embed my email in that link, when the other techtargetmail.com link did embed my email?
Then after submitting it, another page pops up telling me that I'll soon receive an email with additional instructions! In this email there's a link -- to avaya.com with my email address embedded -- that I must click, I guess to double plus confirm that yes, I really really really do wish never to hear from you again. Clicking that link takes me to a page that promises my "permissions have successfully been set. Thank you."

A pox on both your houses, TechTarget and Avaya. I never asked for your stuff. Go away.

Spam, my friends, is only going to get worse. It was so easy to ban junk faxes in 1991. But even those regulations were weakened in 2005. So do you really think we'll see anything even remotely logical for outlawing spam? I doubt it, unless we the citizens foment a revolt. Let's get cracking!

Received: from SVC-EXGWY-E801.partners.extranet.microsoft.com (10.251.24.242)
by tk5-exhub-c102.redmond.corp.microsoft.com (157.54.18.53) with Microsoft
SMTP Server (TLS) id 8.1.291.1; Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:27:56 -0700
Received: from mail139-wa4-R.bigfish.com (216.32.181.113) by
mail04.microsoft.com (10.253.160.184) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id
8.1.291.1; Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:27:55 -0700
Received: from mail139-wa4 (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1])    by
mail139-wa4-R.bigfish.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 018C11184C2    for
; Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:27:50 +0000 (UTC)
X-BigFish: ps16(zz18c1K1936K2b7wcak69jzzzz2af1jz2fh6bh5eh65h)
X-Spam-TCS-SCL: 4:0
Received: by mail139-wa4 (MessageSwitch) id 1221589667478982_28100; Tue, 16
Sep 2008 18:27:47 +0000 (UCT)
Received: from pp.techtargetmail.com (pp.techtargetmail.com [65.211.80.227])
    by mail139-wa4.bigfish.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 46566978071    for
; Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:27:47 +0000 (UTC)
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=pp.techtargetmail.com; b=iOmibOrM91/1Ugy2gj3QbWo74T2m3GuhmwxZCXJQpFT+nwRES8QKg+4vjt48SNp7WWJExG61Ge+DtnKD3KVI3KwqTKzkPRVrEBF0DCHhYot6VAG/EyEr5vb5RhBz+91yvNhbIqITzGnuQ+uBDJzyc6gU0FHfBl0Fa3S/phcPELM=;
Message-ID:
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:27:47 -0400
thread-index: a818b044.724694.236c8ee748f7dd97.1.n.4
Reply-To: Avaya
From: Avaya
To: Steve Riley
Subject: 7 Tips to Ensure Readiness for UC Deployment
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
Importance: normal
Priority: normal
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.3790.4133
Return-Path: a818b044.724694.236c8ee748f7dd97.1.n.4@pp.techtargetmail.com
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-PRD: pp.techtargetmail.com
Received-SPF: Pass (SVC-EXGWY-E801.partners.extranet.microsoft.com: domain
of Avaya@pp.techtargetmail.com designates 65.211.80.227 as permitted sender)
receiver=SVC-EXGWY-E801.partners.extranet.microsoft.com;
client-ip=65.211.80.227; helo=mail139-wa4-R.bigfish.com;
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-PCL: 2
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-Antispam-Report: DV:3.3.6916.600;SV:3.3.6916.813;SID:SenderIDStatus Pass;OrigIP:65.211.80.227
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-SCL: 2
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-SenderIdResult: PASS

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How should you evaluate the move to unified communications (UC)? Who within which parts of an organization will benefit? Will UC reduce the time to market? Read this E-Guide for answers to these questions and a better look at how the value of UC will, at first, be less of a financial issue and more of a productivity improvement issue that translates into financial benefits. Download this white paper now: http://pp.techtargetmail.com/c.asp?724694&236c8ee748f7dd97&1

When implementing unified communications, there are a number of important issues to think about and questions to ask. This E-Guide analyzes seven phases to ensure you reap the full benefits of UC in each. If you're ready to take the plunge but you're not sure your business or your infrastructure is - download this E-Guide now.

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Barracuda to Sourcefire: We see your CEO bet, and raise you to $8.25, call

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:27:26 +0000

Barracuda continues their poker game with Sourcefire today raising their $7.50 all cash bid to $8.25. Are Dean and company just bluffing for publicity or are they willing to keep playing and stay in this game until all the cards are on the table? I don't know for sure, but find it interesting that Barracuda did say to Sourcefire that they would be willing to explore ways that would show Sourcefire's increased value to Barracuda and based upon that increase their offer. Of course $8.25 is still to low, but it is getting closer. If the offer gets near 10 bucks, Sourcefire has some serious decisions to make. In the meantime, Barracuda will again reap the PR bounty from having a seat at the hottest poker game in security.

Barracuda to Sourcefire: We see your CEO bet, and raise you to $8.25, call

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:27:47 +0000

Kiva Update

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:21:07 +0000

About a year ago, we signed up for Kiva, which is a microlender. One of our first loans went to Sith Saron, who lives in Siem Reap Province in Cambodia. She needed a $1,000 for a cow, seeds, and a motorcycle for her farm.

Sith Saron is 37 years old and the mother of 7 children. She sells Khmer traditional cakes such as Num Korm, Num Bot, and Num Krouk to the people in her community and usually earns up to $4 each day. Her husband, meanwhile, works in his rice paddy growing crops as well as several kinds of vegetables. Two of her children are employed at a hotel, but the others are students.

The loan had a 18 month pay back date, and just a couple of weeks ago (about 10 months after taking out the loan), she paid the loan in full

Kiva is focused on serving the working poor

Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material.
When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

I really like the last pay it forward part, so the lender can elect to take the money out of Kiva's system or loan it out again, in effect the last business is putting capital back into the system to help the next entrepreneur. Additionally, big props to Paypal which supports Kiva by acting as a transaction processor and waiving fees. What's all this mean? As Tom Barnett says:

everyone who wants to make a difference should just go ahead and get their own foreign policy and stop waiting on change from above.

I added the bold, because the bottom up tools that Kiva, Paypal and the Web give us are really unique, and really powerful to enable through microloans - entrepreuners who we may never meet in countries we may never go to be successful.

Wily ways to get you to install Spyware

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:39:45 +0000

Its really a big business. Getting you to install it pays well. Unfortunately you dont reap any profits.

clipped from www.worldofsoftware.net

How To Remove Spyware

spyware Removal
It’s a little known fact to most people but viruses now a days are not as big of an issue as spyware. The above person may have a virus but the symptoms they gave are not for a virus but spyware. When you are getting pop-ups on your computer you can be certain you have spyware installed on your computer.

Living Large: Small Companies Yield Big Results with Web Collaboration

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:00:00 +0000

(Source: Webex) Virtual collaboration and online meeting technologies are advancing the reach of small/medium businesses, allowing them to access a greater number of people, land more sales and better educate consumers and business partners while cutting costs. Learn how you can reap the benefits.

PCI compliance are you just checking the box?

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:05:00 +0000

I will be presenting at the RSR conference this week, and this has me thinking more deeply about challenges that retailers are facing in complying with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. I speak with many retailers in my role – BitArmor helps them secure and manage cardholder data in their environments. One of the challenges that retail CISO’s face is selling senior management on the funding of PCI initiatives. Often, senior management would rather invest in opening a new store than in purchasing an encryption solution to secure their existing infrastructure. For them, PCI is viewed as a necessary evil: many retailers are simply trying to check the compliance box instead of embracing the business benefits that PCI compliance can bring.

Is there value beyond just checking the box?

Yes!

PCI compliance efforts deliver significant value beyond the immediate data protection benefits. As part of becoming compliant, many retailers are being forced to rethink their systems, data paths, security models, networks, and policies. Fully addressing PCI requires solving these hard process problems, and this is an opportunity to build a strong operational base (making you competitive and agile) for the future of the company. As a result, working towards PCI compliance can increase both revenue and profit.

I see PCI (and so do many retail technologists) as today’s Y2K for retailers. Over the past 10 years, many companies have benefited from their efforts to address the Y2K bug. Y2K catalyzed massive investment in IT infrastructure that improved corporate processes and facilitated more efficient relationships with customers. The similarities between Y2K and PCI initiatives are striking. I believe the benefits will prove to be similar as well.

IT funding exists within many retailers to address PCI challenges. Retailers that take PCI compliance seriously and implement deep operational changes will reap many benefits. Those who view it as an exercise to pass an audit are missing a huge opportunity.