Kikabink News

When the volume of spam hitting my inbox dropped suddenly last week, I thought it was just me. It seems, however, that Internet users around the world have seen a significant drop in spam. And now the intriguing story behind the sudden drop has emerged…

Brian Krebs, reporting in the Washington Post, says that at about 4:30 p.m. EST last Tuesday, the volume of spam being delivered across the world dropped by about 65 percent. It seems that various Internet service providers discovered that a web hosting company in Silicon Valley called McColo Corp. was hosting organizations responsible for much of the world’s spam.

Unfortunately, the relief is likely to be temporary. Those spammers are likely to find other hosts! But Brian Krebs asks a reasonable question: why did it take so long for anyone to work out that a firm in the heart of the Internet and computing community - we’re talking Silicon Valley of all places - was distributing the bulk of the world’s spam?

It appears that McColo - which has not been charged with any crime - hosted a number of key Internet servers (i.e. computers that host websites and send out email, etc) which controlled networks of computers. These networks were used by their various owners to turn hundreds of thousands of compromised PCs into spam distributors or ‘botnets’.

McColo effectively ran the ‘master servers’ that the various dodgy spam organizations used to take over the botnets which, in turn, were used to send out all the spam. When McColo’s Internet service providers took it offline, the master servers went offline… which meant the botnets could no longer be used to send out spam.

Source: Brian Krebs, “Answers Trickle Out as Spammer Networks Remain Compromised”, November 19, 2008

If you use Gmail you would have noticed the addition of a new feature last week: video and voice chat. Hmmm, looks like Google plans to take on Skype!

To activate the new feature, you need to install a small browser plugin. The feature will work on PCs with Windows XP or Vista, as well as on Macs with OS X 10.4 or later. The plugin will work with all the major browsers, including Google’s own Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari.

Source: Justin Uberti, “Say hello to Gmail voice and video chat”, Gmail Blog, November 11, 2008

A class action lawsuit has been brought against NebuAd and Internet service providers (ISPs) including CenturyTel, WOW, CableOne, Embarq, Knology and Bresnan Communications.

The suit, which was filed in the California Federal District on behalf of 16 plaintiffs, claims NebuAd and the ISPs committed illegal privacy and computer security breaches against Internet subscribers.

The aforementioned ISPs retained NebuAd earlier this year to trial its behavioral advertising platform. In doing so, the complainants allege, NebuAd and the ISPs violated two federal laws (the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act) as well as two California laws (the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the Computer Crime Law).

Source: Zachary Rodgers, “NebuAd, ISP Partners Targeted in Class Action Suit”, The ClickZ Network, November 12, 2008

If Michael Arrington from TechCrunch is right, Google’s iPhone voice recognition application should hit Apple’s iTunes store today. (Apparently there was a misunderstanding between Google and Apple that created the widespread belief that the free application would be available last Friday…)

In any case, Google’s technology is pretty neat. Basically, it enables iPhone users to generate Google search results based on a question they ask into the phone. The sound is converted into a digital file and sent to Google’s servers, which attempt to decipher the words spoken, and then send them to Google’s search engine.

Using some of the iPhone’s features, the technology will also take into account the user’s location to generate localized search results.

Source: Michael Arrington, “Update On Google iPhone Voice Recognition App: Look For It On Monday”, TechCrunch, November 16, 2008

It was Firefox’s 4th birthday on Sunday (November 9). In just four years, Firefox has become the second most popular web browser with a 20 percent market share.

ReadWriteWeb reports that after launching in November 2004, Firefox was able to gain a 4.65 percent share by December, while the browser market continued to be dominated by Internet Explorer with a 90.31 percent.

Four years later, Firefox has 19.97 percent, while IE’s share has diminished somewhat to 71.27 percent. Firefox’s growth reflects a 329 percent market share increase over four years which, if it continues, will lead to the browser commanding a 85.67 percent market share by 2012.

Source: Lidija Davis, “Happy Birthday Firefox”, ReadWriteWeb, November 9, 2008