Focus On: Spam

If you receive a message from IH Mississippi Valley Credit Union, offering $80 to participate in a survey, delete it.

Email service provider FastMail's not-freemail service was out for over three days. And we finally have the complete "how-and-why" of it. Before you start calling names, read FastMail's side of it, then ask yourself how your system stacks up.

Despite the constant drumbeat of bad security news, many users believe it's all a bunch of bunk designed to panic them into buying stuff they don't need. They're right. But that doesn't explain why so few protect themselves by encrypting their wireless access points... especially since it costs them nothing at all. After seeing a wardriving report on my community, I'm depressed.

Has Osama Bin Laden been captured? Not yet. But you will be, if you're dumb enough to click on the link in the message. Ted Richardson shares his experience tracking down the culprit... with a little help from Alex Eckelberry, Paul Laudanski, Chris Gunn and Patrick Jordan. Gee. Sometimes it really does take a village.

Controversial freedom of speech advocate Dave Hayes says he's abandoning net-abuse usenet sites because he's tired of tilting at windmills. On his way out the door, he labels Spamhaus and SPEWS as "terrorists," and ISPs who are trying to keep customers happy by filtering unwanted mail as "anti-spam zealots."