MPAA Gets Town To Turn Off Free Muni-WiFi Over Single Unauthorized Movie Download

Mon, Oct 5th 2009 9:22pm

Filed Under:
creative destruction, geocities, shut down

Companies:
facebook, myspace, twitter, yahoo

28 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Creative Web Destruction: Sites Go Away

from the remember-that dept

As we await the official shutdown of Geocities at the end of the month, Ivor Tossell is reminding everyone that today's internet hotspot -- Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. -- may be completely gone in a decade's time. And, while it's good that sites come and go as the next big thing comes along, it does raise questions for those who are relying on these sites as some sort of archive of a life lived online. It's a good reminder of the importance of either being able to back up certain information -- or control it directly yourself.

Wed, Nov 12th 2008 12:48pm

Filed Under:
botnets, hosting, shut down, spam, spam ring

Companies:
mccolo, washington post

20 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Washington Post Story Convinces Service Providers To Pull The Plug On Major Spam Enabler

from the but-where-do-they-go dept

We're seeing a bunch of folks pointing out that evidence collected by the Washington Post's computer security writer, Brian Krebs, is basically responsible for getting that company kicked off the internet. Krebs is a fantastic reporter, so I don't doubt the story -- but I'm always a little skeptical of stories claiming that a huge percentage of spammers have been knocked offline. We see such stories every few months, and it never seems to have any real impact on the amount of spam out there. Just last month there was a report claiming that the world's largest spam operation was shut down, but the actual amount of spam flowing across the network did not decrease.

This case is a little different, in that it didn't shut down the spammers themselves, but rather a hosting company that apparently many of the largest zombie botnets relied on. However, it seems quite likely that they'll find some other hosting company that will gladly take them on and everything will be up and running again. That's not to say it's bad that these guys get taken down -- but at some point people should realize this seems like a big game of whack-a-mole, and there may be better, more efficient ways to tackle the problem.

Wed, Oct 15th 2008 4:04am

Filed Under:
botnets, shut down, spam, spam ring

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Huge Spam Ring Shut Down... But Will It Make A Difference?

from the we'll-see dept

Every so often, we see a random news story about authorities somehow arresting or shutting down some huge spam ring, and every time the articles are peppered with quotes about just how big the operation is and how much spam they send out. And, yet, every time, it never seems to do very much to dent the amount of spam that's being sent. So, again, with this week's big spam bust, all the numbers and explanations sound impressive. 35,000 computers in a botnet. Able to send 10 billion (billion, with a b) spam messages per day. The leading source of spam online in January (what, only January?). These all sound impressive, but the real question should be whether or not this does anything to decrease spam. Or will others just as quickly jump in to fill the breach?

(Mis)Uses of Technology

Wed, Mar 12th 2008 6:21am

Filed Under:
shut down, websites

Companies:
godaddy, ratemycop