Currently:
2002-09-10»
Drive-by spamming redux»
Within a few hours of posting the correction
to ZDNet's
article on drive-by spamming, Adrian
Wright, the original misquoted expert, e-mailed me. "Saw your comments on
Oblomovka. Not exactly professional behaviour for a Sunday Times stringer", he
wrote. I asked him what he thought was unprofessional. As yet he hasn't
replied.
Meanwhile, the original misquote is already beginning to spread. News
sources like ZDNet are seen as authoritative sources online and off. From
miscellaneous Slashdot
posters to Professor Ed Felten, there are now
people who cite the piece as proof that there are recorded instances of
drive-by spamming.
As far as I know - and more importantly, as far as Adrian Wright, the
original source, knows, there exists no such evidence. The lead to the story,
"'Warspammers' are taking advantage of unprotected wireless LANs to send out
millions of junk emails" is simply not true.
Terry Schmidt, of NYC Wireless
wrote independently to the ZDNet UK journalist, Graeme Wearden, asking in the
light of the new comments by Adrian, admitting that he'd never seen a case of
drive-by spamming in real life, ZDNet would correct the original story. Here's
what Graeme wrote:
I asked Wright if he would like me to change anything in my story -
he didn't.
I think that's because, even if he did say 'could happen' rather
than 'is happening' (and sitting in the middle of that audience,
I thought he was discussing something that is taking place, and
that's what I wrote down), Wright thinks it very likely that
drive-by hacking is occuring.
That looks like the truth. But it's very different from the original story.
That article - still being spread, still being read - continues to mislead
people into believing drive-by spamming is happening right now, and
that Adrian Wright had seen it happen.
Misinformation like this has consequences. It encourages people to believe
that having an open network is an uncivil thing to do; that they should cower
in fear at the spammers stalking the streets, looking for outlets. It
encourages people to believe that the only solution to their fear,
uncertainty and doubt is to to hire security consultants with experience of
this rampant menace. And the more the original misleading article sits there,
the further the misinformation spreads.
This seems to be the opposite of what a journalist should do; and the
opposite of what a security consultant is paid to advise. I'm not sure who is
to blame here: but if anyone is being unprofessional, I don't think it's
me.
2002-09-06»
Drive-by spamming: still a theoretical danger»
Quote from Adrian Wright, the expert "quoted" in a ZD Net story which
claimed spammers were using open WiFi
points to send "millions" of unsoliticed e-mails :
It seems I've been everso slightly misquoted in that I actually said
'could' in this presentation. i.e. "These people COULD simply drive up
to a building armed with their... Apart from that it looks like a good
story!
Although I know of no hard evidence that this practice of wireless drive-by
spamming is taking place, I would be surprised if it was not happening -
given the increasing difficulties spammers face in retaining legitimate ISP
access - within the more developed nations anyway.
My emphasis. In other words, "drive-by spamming" is still a something that
some people endlessly predict will happen if you leave your AP insecure, but
of which no record exists in the wild.
Adrian also said that drive-by spamming had been covered many times (true)
and ZDNet was one of the most prominent new sources documenting the existence
of this practice. Wait - you're using as an authority the very organisation
who completely misquoted you? On the same topic? Is that wise?
2002-09-05»
Drive-by Spamming»
Hmm. C|Net ZDNet UK is reporting that "millions of
mails" are being sent by people who pull up to open wifi networks, and use
them to anonymously spam.
Okay, I'm suspicious. Spamming through open networks was always a
theoretical possibility (indeed, I remember people referring to drive-by
spamming almost as early as wardriving was coined), but I've never heard of it
happening in the wild. I've just left a message with Adrian Wright, the British security expert
quoted in the article, to see if he has any concrete cases. I suspect either
either he's pulling the examples out of his imaginary analyst hat, or he's
been misquoted.
2002-09-04»
I fought the law and I won»
I'm not sure, but I think Americans believe more fervently in the saving
grace of the almighty Law than the British. I occasionally reel off dozens of
fantastically repressive UK laws (including the one that forbids gatherings that
include "the emission of a succession of repetitive beats") to looks of
perfect horror here. Then I end it all by saying "Of course, no one pays any
attention! Ahahaha!", and watch everybody fall off their seats. In the US,
there's a background buzz that nothing keeps your neighbour in check but the
letter of the law and the iron force of the Constitution. Gotta keep the rule
of law, or society will collapse in a hail of gunfire, trespassing,
double-parking and moider. There's no pity for those who break the law.
In Britain it's much more "Okay do what you want - but try not to get caught,
alright?"
I've grown far more sympathetic to the American line over time, but I've
never seen anyone state the alternative position quite as elegantly D2 Digest. Bit too
elegantly, in fact. If you read his work - including the entry on why Lessig
is too damn sincere, and why
drug laws don't work, and why we should keep them - you could conclude
that they're the careful posings of a
Economista
Angry Young Arse.
Not surprising - if you're going to insist that bad laws can have good effects (or Antinomialism,
as he calls it), it always helps to be nice young Oxonian who can probably
talk your way out of a tight corner with a Christchurch-educated judge when the need
arises. But at least he's not a libertarian Angry Young Arse,
right?
Dumb nav tricks»
Aha! Mozilla 1.1 supports LINK tags out of the box - try clicking on the
"View..." menu option then "Show/Hide", "Site Navigation Bar", and finally
"Show Only As Needed". On sites that support it, a little mini-toolbar of
navigation links will pop up at the top of the browser window whenever Mozilla
spots them. You can also discover which sites have RSS feeds, thanks to
Mark's RSS link
suggestion (they'll be hiding under the "More" folder).
This feature's been in Mozilla builds for a while, but they never had any
GUI options for it because slowed down page loads. I wonder if that's fixed?
I'm still not sure I like it - ironically Mark's addition means that it pops
up on more sites than it's really useful. In those cases it does eat a fair
bit of real estate, and is a bit of a distraction.
Everybody Loves Automatic Text Generators, Briefly»
Stuck for what to say on your livejournal today? Just enter
"girlfriend" into the automatic journal entry
generator. Also available in Polish.
Even though she seemed much better she still wasnt sure how much longer shed
be around-and this was something that we were all aware of but didnt dwell
on. She has the gift of making you love her even though she drives you
totally batshit :> It was totally cool to be able to provide so much pleasure
even though im just lying there and enjoying the feeling and the show ;> Its
pretty sad that this is the only way i seem to be able to get along with my
supervisors... Everytime i try to get along with him he does or says
something to piss me off. Nice boy and im glad he and jo are such good
friends but we differ in too many ways to get along. You amaze me and im glad
were both on the same level! Some are on the same page as my good ones.
petit disclaimer:
My employer has enough opinions of its own, without having to have mine too.
