JunkMail
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Researchers hide messages in a sea of spam
Researchers are trying quantum cryptography and other exotic ways to keep your missives safe, but here's a new one: junk mail. A team of computer scientists from MIT's CSAIL have devised a system called "Vuvuzela" that adds noise to messages, making them virtually untraceable to the recipient or sender. While it uses nodes like the Tor "dark internet" router, it only requires a few servers and relies more on numerous fake messages to confuse hackers. If scaled up, the technique could give you nearly mathematical certainty that your messages and even metadata are secure.
India caps text messages to curb telemarketing, Desi teens plot mutiny
SMS-based telemarketing is a serious problem in India -- so serious, in fact, that the government has decided to crack down in a pretty severe way. As of this week, every Indian mobile user or company is allowed to send only 100 text messages per day, as part of a new anti-spam initiative from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The move is just the latest in a series of campaigns to combat a boom in aggressive telemarketing that, according to some, borders on harassment. Authorities say spam phone calls have already declined significantly since 2007, when the government instituted a national "do not call" registry, yet the problem persists, with many users complaining of receiving commercial texts during the wee hours of the night. Regulators seem confident that these new rules will go a long way toward solving this riddle, though some have been left wondering why India's millions of mobile subscribers should pay the price, rather than the spammers themselves. The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, is reporting that subcontinental telemarketers have already begun circumventing the new regulations by re-focusing their efforts on junk mail, ad-based Twitter feeds and other ways to be just as annoying as they ever were. [Image courtesy of Thomas Hawk]
Dear Friend: 92 percent of all email is spam, says Symantec
This statistic may or may not come as a surprise, depending on how closely you monitor your email inbox. Symantec has released an estimate that 92 percent of all email is spam, up from 89 percent last year. The good news? Phishing attacks declined 5 percent this year, and if we had to make a guess, we'd say attacks of listening to Phish are on an upswing. Check out another one of our favorite example spams below.
.Mac webmail now does server-side spam filtering
As with most big Apple announcements, at least a few features slip through the cracks. Thanks to TUAW reader Brandon Werner, we caught one that answers a long-time complaint of .Mac users and critics: server-side spam filtering. Until today (or at least recently; we've never noticed this before), checking your mail at the .Mac site would subject you to any and all spam you receive, since the webmail didn't filter anything out; Apple leaves that up to Mail (or your other client of choice). Now, finally, .Mac webmail offers this option to filter out junk mail right on the server, giving you at least some sort of a break from the stream of junk you might inevitably encounter. Be sure to check out the support document linked at this option, as it outlines a few steps to take to ensure that your email client and .Mac webmail keep in step regarding the messages that actually get filed into the junk mail folder. This will allow you to review those messages either from the webmail client or your desktop client, making it easy to pick out the few genuine messages that get swept away with the actual garbage.
Have Mario send your mail (via stamps from Japan)
Sure, old Mario has been known to paint, play professional sports, and even do some actual plumbing work on occasion, but he'll soon be able to power your mail through the postal service in the Far East.10-stamp sheets of 80 Yen stamps are now available for pre-order in Japan, where gaming otakus will soon be able to adorn their snail mail with the likes of goombas, magic mushrooms, and mustachioed men. The set will be out next month.Has the government of a country like the US ever done anything this official to honor one of the icons of gaming? Perhaps when we have avid gaming advocates in Congress -- or even, dare we say, in the White House -- things will look a little different with game legislation proposals and the postage of unwanted junk mail.[Via GameBrink]See also: French stamps to feature video game icons (Super) Mario Bros. question mark and POW block speakers
