Google GMail Now Offers Rich Text, SearchEngineJournal, 30 Mar 2005
“Google GMail now supports fonts, bullets, highlighting, indenting and much more. Colors and few fonts are also available to be implemented on the text content. Impressively, forwarding HTML mails work fine as well. This was one area where Yahoo! had an advantage over Google GMail as forwarding messed up complicated HTML mails by converting it to text.�
Microsoft Seeks to Identify Phishing Scam Authors, washingtonpost.com, 31 Mar 2005
“Microsoft Corp. on Thursday escalated its efforts to crack down on Internet fraud, announcing that it filed more than a hundred lawsuits aimed at identifying people the company says targeted its e-mail and Internet service customers through "phishing" scams. Microsoft filed 117 civil lawsuits against unnamed individuals in federal district court in Seattle, hoping to learn the identities of those behind a rash of fraudulent e-mail messages identified over the past six months that specifically targeted customers of Microsoft's MSN Internet and Hotmail e-mail services, the company said.�
Microsoft Sues Alleged Identity Thieves, Associated Press, 31 Mar 2005
“Microsoft Corp. on Thursday filed 117 federal lawsuits against unnamed defendants, accusing them of a high-tech form of identity theft known as "phishing." The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, accuses the "John Doe" defendants of using mass e-mail or pop-up ads to coerce consumers into revealing personal information such as bank account information, passwords or social security numbers.�
Mobile phones as blog tools, SiliconValley.com, 31 Mar 2005
“A new technology expected to launch in April promises to turn cellular phones into mobile blogging tools. The application, called ``Rabble,'' streamlines the now-cumbersome process for publishing text or images from a cell phone to a Weblog. It also creates a way to search mobile blogs for items of interest -- from homes for sale in a particular neighborhood to updated tour information for a favorite band. The creators of Rabble see the software as more than a mere mobile blogging tool. It combines the social-networking aspects of a Friendster with the enhanced search capabilities of a Google. A major national wireless phone carrier is expected to offer Rabble next month for a monthly fee.�
We're a Hit in Manila! Now What?, Wired News, 31 Mar 2005
“In the United States, where Friendster and most of its members reside, the site makes money by selling advertising. In the Philippines, however, Friendster recognized that such a strategy wouldn't fly. "Online advertising is not enough to sustain a business in the Philippines," said Joe Hurd, Friendster's vice president of international, noting that the percentage of Filipino households with internet access is far lower than in the United States. Instead, Friendster focused on mobile phones, the use of which is much more widespread.�
China Telecom net doubles on Internet growth, The Standard, 1 Apr 2005
“China Telecom, the Hong Kong-listed unit of the country's biggest fixed-line operator, said net profit doubled in 2004 thanks to the growth in its broadband Internet business, which is likely to remain an earnings driver as it cuts back investment in mobile services. China Telecom's broadband subscribers increased by 6.61 million or 91.4 percent to 13.84 million last year, and Internet service accounted for almost 10 percent of its operating revenue. Wang said the planned 55.8 billion yuan capital expenditure this year will mainly be spent on transforming existing networks, including building a second Internet Protocol backbone.�
China Telecom Reports Doubled Net Profit, Associated Press, 31 Mar 2005
“China Telecom Corp., the country's largest fixed-lined telephone operator, said Thursday its net profit doubled last year after it restated its financial statements. China Telecom's net profit rose to 28.0 billion Chinese yuan (US$3.4 billion; euro2.6 billion) in 2004 from 13.9 billion yuan a year earlier. Revenue rose to 161.2 billion yuan (US$19.5 billion; euro15.1 billion) from CNY151.5 billion…China Telecom Chairman Wang Xiaochu said the company will reduce its capital expenditure on its wireless local access service but will allocate more resources to developing its broadband and internet-based networks.�
Postini Reports Eight Percent Drop in Directory Harvest Attacks: Spam and Email Viruses Decline Slightly, PRNewswire, 31 Mar 2005
“Postini, the industry's leading provider of email security and management, today announced that the number of directory harvest attacks (DHAs) by spammers against corporate email dropped in March for the first time in seven months. In March, Postini protected its customers from more than 26 million DHAs, or an average of 843,157 per day. This is an eight percent decrease compared to February's average of 919,963 per day.�
Philippine internet population explodes, South China Morning Post, 30 Mar 2005
“The number of internet users in the Philippines is projected to increase more than 69 per cent to 20 million by 2007, IDC Philippines said on Wednesday. There were an estimated 11.8 million Internet users in the country last year. Commercial transactions through the internet originating from the Philippines amounted to US$3 billion (HK$23 billion) last year.�
11.8M Internet users in the Philippines in '04, says IDC, inq7.net, 30 Mar 2005
“This is expected to grow to 20 million by 2007, Philippines Research Manager Manuel Ravago told members of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society. "We're quite confident [about] our numbers," he added…Ravago also said that business-to-business (B2B) and business- to-consumer (B2C) business in the Philippines grew into a 3.35 billion-dollar industry in 2004, with B2B comprising 70-80 percent of that total.�
MessageLabs launches encryption service, InfoWorld, 30 Mar 2005
“A new service from e-mail security vendor MessageLabs (Profile, Products, Articles) uses encryption to protect e-mail sent between business partners over the Internet, the company announced Wednesday…MessageLabs customers that want to use the service designate an e-mail domain that will be used to send the encrypted e-mail, and provide the domains of trusted partners who will engage in secure e-mail exchanges. MessageLabs' servers ensure that e-mail sent to and from the designated domains is secured using TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption. E-mail traffic to all other domains is sent "in the clear" using just SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), the company said�
ISPs gain ground vs. cable Net providers, USAToday.com, 30 Mar 2005
“Several Supreme Court justices Tuesday appeared skeptical of claims that cable companies should not have to open their broadband lines to rival Internet service providers. Internet service providers (ISPs) say such a requirement would give consumers choices, as they have when buying DSL broadband from phone companies.�
MCI Delivers Four-Way Protection With Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus Solution For Businesses, PRNewswire, 30 Mar 2005
“MCI, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCIP - News) today announced it is enhancing one of its fastest growing security services, Managed Email Content, to include content control. With MCI's newly enhanced anti-spam, anti-virus email scrubbing solution, businesses of all sizes can benefit from stronger security controls aimed at helping them better manage spam and keep their networks free from Internet threats. By stopping unwanted email at the network border, businesses also can protect against lost productivity and lower network costs by reducing bandwidth, storage and computation costs associated with managing spam and destructive viruses.�
China becoming haven for phishers, Cnet News.com, 30 Mar 2005
“China is playing host to a growing number of phishing scams, according to recent research that found a sharp rise in fraudulent Web sites hosted there. Security professionals in the Chinese National Computer Emergency Response Team, or CNCERT, said this week that 223 fraudulent Web sites were discovered in China last year, compared with only one reported in 2003.�
AOL unveils blogging service for teens, Cnet News.com, 29 Mar 2005
“America Online has announced a new blogging service for teenagers. Red Blogs, which AOL unveiled Tuesday, allows teenagers and parents to select the level of privacy they want for their online diaries; a private blog can be kept locked. A semiprivate blog is locked to all but those who are invited to read it. And a public blog allows access to anybody on the Net.�
AOL Launches Blog Service for Teens, eWeek, 29 Mar 2005
“AOL officially launched its RED Blogs service Tuesday, aimed at capturing some of the growing popularity of online Weblogs by focusing on the teen segment. AOL members can create fully customizable journals and choose among keeping them completely private, opening them only to friends or maintaining them as normal blogs that anyone can view. Before launching the product, AOL commissioned a survey to gauge teens' interest in blogging. It found that teens were almost evenly split, 51-49, on whether they would want to share their personal feelings with their parents or on a blog.�
Intermedia.NET Launches Email Hosting, Web Host Industry Review, 29 Mar 2005
“Web hosting provider Intermedia.NET (intermedia.net) announced on Tuesday that it had launched a new email hosting service. Business E-Mail Hosting, the company says, is designed for small and medium-sized companies that want a personalized email address at a very low cost.�
Mytob e-mail worm proliferating quickly, ZDNet, 29 Mar 2005
“With eight new variants surfacing in the last week alone, and over a dozen reported since the beginning of March, the Mytob mass-mailing worm appears to be evolving rapidly. On Monday, security software maker Symantec reported two new versions of the virus, labeled as W32.Mytob.R and W32.Mytob.S. Both worms achieved a low or moderate threat rating from Symantec, as have earlier variants of Mytob, but the company is still recommending that people update their security software immediately to protect against the emerging threat.�
Google versus Yahoo versus MSN, HindustanTimes.com, 28 Mar 2005
“Is it Part 5? Or maybe it's Part 6? I guess I have lost count. It's been a year and a half since I have been following the Google versus Yahoo versus MSN war. Unlike the US-Iraq war there are no clear winners in this one. One salvo from there, retaliation from another camp, another missile from yet another camp. Fight fight! As long as we the consumers are getting the best of it, enjoy it till it lasts.�
Phishers Moving Away From E-mail "Lures", TechWeb, 28 Mar 2005
“According to the latest report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a coalition of technology companies and law enforcement agencies devoted to eliminating ID theft, the number of phishing e-mail campaigns during February climbed by 2 percent over January, even though the former was three days shorter. More important, however, is that phishing without an accompanying e-mail "lure" is becoming more common. So called "pharming" attacks don't rely on legitimate-looking e-mails to lure users to fake Web sites, but automate that process by planting malicious code on vulnerable systems, then modifying the PC's HOSTS file to point to fraudulent sites rather than to the real deal.�
Panel: VeriSign Should Retain Domain Name, Associated Press, 29 Mar 2005
“An independent advisory firm recommended Monday that VeriSign Inc. be given another six years to run the Internet's third most popular domain name suffix. If approved, renewal of a contract to serve as master-keeper of ".net" directories would generate about $20 million annually for VeriSign, which already makes more than $200 million a year managing ".com." Owners of ".net" domain names could see lower prices when they renew.�
Brief: Trend Micro to guard 100M e-mail accounts for Sina, ComputerWorld, 28 Mar 2005
“Antivirus software vendor Trend Micro Inc. has struck a deal to provide antivirus protection for more than 100 million e-mail accounts managed by one of China's top Internet portal operators, Sina Corp., the company said today. Under the terms of the agreement, Trend Micro said in a statement, it will provide antivirus screening for more than 100 million Sina e-mail accounts. Sina has 101.2 million registered users with e-mail accounts, it said. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.�
Sina plugs in Trend Micro's virus scanner, CNETAsia, 28 Mar 2005
“Chinese Internet portal Sina plans to bolster the security of its Web offerings with virus protection and anti-spam capabilities. Under the first part of a deal inked today with security software firm Trend Micro, the portal will incorporate a virus-scanning feature into its Web-based e-mail service. Sina is one of China's most popular Web sites, boasting over 100 million users. The company also claims to have more than 13 million subscribers for its paid services such as game downloads.�
Rolling out next generation's net, BBC News, 26 Mar 2005
“The body that oversees how the net works, grows and evolves says it has coped well with its growth in the last 10 years, but it is just the start. "In a sense, we have hardly started in reaching the whole population," the new chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Brian Carpenter, says…As the new chair of the IETF, his next big challenge is overseeing IPv6, the next generation standard for information transfer and routing across the web.�
Vendors Join Forces to 'Fingerprint' Hacker Attacks, eWeek, 28 Mar 2005
“Struggling to cope with a dramatic rise in malicious hacker intrusions, a group of 18 network providers and ISPs on Monday announced plans to share real-time data on cyber-attacks. The vendors, which include Cisco Systems Inc., British Telecommunication Plc., EarthLink Inc., MCI Inc. and XO Communications Inc., have formed the Fingerprint Sharing Alliance to automate the way information is distributed during an intense hacker attack.�
ISPs, telecoms join to 'fingerprint' Internet attacks, ComputerWorld, 28 Mar 2005
“Leading global telecommunications companies, Internet service providers and network operators will begin sharing information on Internet attacks as members of a new group called the Fingerprint Sharing Alliance, according to a published statement from the new group. The companies, including EarthLink Inc., Asia Netcom, British Telecommunications PLC and MCI Inc., will share detailed profile information on attacks launched against their networks. Information to be shared will include the sources of attacks.�
Symantec's Hosted Mail Security Offers Off-Site Protection, eWeek, 24 Mar 2005
“Symantec Corp. on Wednesday announced its new Symantec Hosted Mail Security to provide enterprises with off-site protection against spam, viruses and other malicious traffic. The company adds the offering to a line of enterprise e-mail security products, including both its software and appliance-based solutions…Though the solution is hosted by Symantec, Miller said customers retain full control over their e-mail and security policies. A Web-based management interface gives them access to policy controls for blocking specific types of attachments, as well as subject and message body filtering.�
Yahoo IM Phishing Attack Might Be Glimpse at Future, TechNewsWorld, 28 Mar 2005
“Security experts say the phishing attacks launched on Yahoo IM likely represent the leading edge of an emerging threat to IM and to the growth of the messaging medium even as portals such as Yahoo, AOL and MSN hope to make it a key technology to keep users connected on PCs, portable computers and hand-held devices.�
Phishers Target Yahoo Messenger, enterprise IT planet.com, 28 Mar 2005
“A new phishing (define) attack has been launched against Yahoo Messenger users, according to security firms Akonix and IMlogic. For now, the scheme appears to be limited to the Yahoo's IM network. The attack starts with an IM message from a users' buddy list. The message directs the users to a site where they log in and reveal their Yahoo identity and password. The phisher then gains access to all of the users personal ID stored as part of the individual's Yahoo account.�
