RSS feeds seem to be the breakout technology for the year. With more users turning to them for driving traffic to their site, it’s no wonder that a trail of RSS feed spam is following in the wake. A careful editing of your RSS feed could make the difference between being classified as genuine content or RSS spam.
RSS search engines are just beginning to pick up steam. As more RSS feeds become searchable, the number of visitors will increase and spam is sure to follow. It is an unfortunate side effect of free communication. While RSS users can typically unsubscribe to feeds they deem as spam, browsing with keywords in an RSS search engine is where the problem arises.
RSS spam largely consists of three main types most often found in the RSS search engines. The first type is keyword stuffing.
Keyword stuffing involves filling each RSS feed article with high-value keywords for a specific topic. The articles are not intended for human visitors, but instead for search engine robots to direct traffic to a target web site. This RSS spam technique is nothing more than an adaptation of the typical keyword-stuffed web page, often banned by major search engines.
The second type involves RSS feed link farms. These RSS articles often contain very little content, if any, other than a simple keyword. Their main attraction is the feed title. Clicking the feed title takes the user to a blog containing tens or hundreds of other blogs and RSS feeds, each directing to more links within the farm. The goal of this type of RSS spam is to trick the user into clicking advertisements or directing them to a product web site.
The third type is the creation of fake RSS feeds. These appear as legitimate, but often duplicated, article content. Whether they provide value or not is certainly debatable. These feeds are usually created in mass, using automated scripts, and appear similar in nature to the link farms. By attracting the users to seemingly valuable content, they hope to gain advertisement clicks or product web site traffic.
Your RSS feed might happen to fall into one of these three categories. While you may currently be experiencing increased traffic from the RSS search engines, these directories are working on filtering out the RSS spam techniques. However, you can still take advantage of RSS feeds and their power by following an RSS-friendly guideline.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Spyware
Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user's interaction with the computer, without the user's informed consent.
While the term spyware suggests software that secretly monitors the user's behavior, the functions of spyware extend well beyond simple monitoring. Spyware programs can collect various types of personal information, such as Internet surfing habits, sites that have been visited, but can also interfere with user control of the computer in other ways, such as installing additional software, and redirecting Web browser activity. Spyware is known to change computer settings, resulting in slow connection speeds, different home pages, and/or loss of Internet or functionality of other programs. In an attempt to increase the understanding of spyware, a more formal classification of its included software types is captured under the term privacy-invasive software.
In response to the emergence of spyware, a small industry has sprung up dealing in anti-spyware software. Running anti-spyware software has become a widely recognized element of computer security best practices for Microsoft Windows desktop computers. A number of jurisdictions have passed anti-spyware laws, which usually target any software that is surreptitiously installed to control a user's computer.
SOURCE: Wiki
While the term spyware suggests software that secretly monitors the user's behavior, the functions of spyware extend well beyond simple monitoring. Spyware programs can collect various types of personal information, such as Internet surfing habits, sites that have been visited, but can also interfere with user control of the computer in other ways, such as installing additional software, and redirecting Web browser activity. Spyware is known to change computer settings, resulting in slow connection speeds, different home pages, and/or loss of Internet or functionality of other programs. In an attempt to increase the understanding of spyware, a more formal classification of its included software types is captured under the term privacy-invasive software.
In response to the emergence of spyware, a small industry has sprung up dealing in anti-spyware software. Running anti-spyware software has become a widely recognized element of computer security best practices for Microsoft Windows desktop computers. A number of jurisdictions have passed anti-spyware laws, which usually target any software that is surreptitiously installed to control a user's computer.
SOURCE: Wiki
Encryption software
Encryption software is software whose main task is encryption and decryption of data, usually in the form of files on (or sectors of) hard drives and removable media, email messages, or in the form of packets sent over computer networks.
Security
Encryption software describes an algorithm that is designed to encrypt computer data in such a way that it cannot be recovered without access to the key. Software encryption is a fundamental part of all aspects of modern computer communication and file protection and may include features like file shredding.
The purpose of encryption is to prevent third parties from recovering the original information. This is particularly important for sensitive data like credit card numbers.
Encryption choices:
Many encryption algorithms exist. The more popular options were submitted to the National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) competition. The winner, Rijndael, got 86 votes while Serpent got 59 votes, Twofish 31 votes, RC6 23 votes and MARS 13 votes. NIST chose Rijndael as its standard. Serpent and Rijndael are in fact somewhat similar; the main difference is that Rijndael is faster (having fewer rounds) but Serpent is more secure.
Security
Encryption software describes an algorithm that is designed to encrypt computer data in such a way that it cannot be recovered without access to the key. Software encryption is a fundamental part of all aspects of modern computer communication and file protection and may include features like file shredding.
The purpose of encryption is to prevent third parties from recovering the original information. This is particularly important for sensitive data like credit card numbers.
Encryption choices:
Many encryption algorithms exist. The more popular options were submitted to the National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) competition. The winner, Rijndael, got 86 votes while Serpent got 59 votes, Twofish 31 votes, RC6 23 votes and MARS 13 votes. NIST chose Rijndael as its standard. Serpent and Rijndael are in fact somewhat similar; the main difference is that Rijndael is faster (having fewer rounds) but Serpent is more secure.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
What is e-Spam?
Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, Online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, and file sharing network spam.
Spamming remains economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and it is difficult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings. Because the barrier to entry is so low, spammers are numerous, and the volume of unsolicited mail has become very high. The costs, such as lost productivity and fraud, are borne by the public and by Internet service providers, which have been forced to add extra capacity to cope with the deluge. Spamming is widely reviled, and has been the subject of legislation in many jurisdictions.
Spamming remains economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and it is difficult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings. Because the barrier to entry is so low, spammers are numerous, and the volume of unsolicited mail has become very high. The costs, such as lost productivity and fraud, are borne by the public and by Internet service providers, which have been forced to add extra capacity to cope with the deluge. Spamming is widely reviled, and has been the subject of legislation in many jurisdictions.
Combating Spam
:Combating spam:
The spam menace has been a cause for concern for most organizations. More than half of the world’s e-mails consist of spam, ranging from possibly useful information, through unwanted information to downright offensive or malicious material. These spam mails may include sexually explicit content and can even trigger phishing.
The rise in spam levels is a result of a new generation of viruses and zombies that can infect PCs more quickly and are harder to get rid of. From spam to malware, high-tech opportunists use a multitude of techniques to make a quick buck off the steadily booming number of people surfing the Internet, and the spam menace is growing year on year.
In today’s corporate network, when spam enters a corporate server, it translates into a high cost for the organization. This cost is not just in terms of wastage of storage and bandwidth, but also in terms of the time of resources that employees waste weeding out these unwanted messages, apart from the risk of phishing. Today, spam represents about 90% of all e-mail and according to Websense Security Labs (WSL), 3 in 50 messages led to phishing sites in the month of October 2008, an increase of 240% over the previous month.
According to other industry sources, spam costs businesses around $20.5 billion annually in decreased productivity as well as in technical expenses. The average loss per employee annually because of spam is approximately $1,934.
On a global scale, the estimated cost of spam to the economy is approximately $25 billion per year causing financial costs and losses in productivity for service providers, businesses and end-users alike. To add to it, the format of such spam attacks keeps evolving as spammers keep using newer and more sophisticated techniques and evade existing spam detection applications.
Here we could just say that as the use of e-mail is growing in organizations, so is the spam problem. Spam is significantly reducing the efficiency of e-mail usage as time and money are wasted through the daily routine of ‘check email-detect spam-delete’ actions.
The spam menace has been a cause for concern for most organizations. More than half of the world’s e-mails consist of spam, ranging from possibly useful information, through unwanted information to downright offensive or malicious material. These spam mails may include sexually explicit content and can even trigger phishing.
The rise in spam levels is a result of a new generation of viruses and zombies that can infect PCs more quickly and are harder to get rid of. From spam to malware, high-tech opportunists use a multitude of techniques to make a quick buck off the steadily booming number of people surfing the Internet, and the spam menace is growing year on year.
In today’s corporate network, when spam enters a corporate server, it translates into a high cost for the organization. This cost is not just in terms of wastage of storage and bandwidth, but also in terms of the time of resources that employees waste weeding out these unwanted messages, apart from the risk of phishing. Today, spam represents about 90% of all e-mail and according to Websense Security Labs (WSL), 3 in 50 messages led to phishing sites in the month of October 2008, an increase of 240% over the previous month.
According to other industry sources, spam costs businesses around $20.5 billion annually in decreased productivity as well as in technical expenses. The average loss per employee annually because of spam is approximately $1,934.
On a global scale, the estimated cost of spam to the economy is approximately $25 billion per year causing financial costs and losses in productivity for service providers, businesses and end-users alike. To add to it, the format of such spam attacks keeps evolving as spammers keep using newer and more sophisticated techniques and evade existing spam detection applications.
Here we could just say that as the use of e-mail is growing in organizations, so is the spam problem. Spam is significantly reducing the efficiency of e-mail usage as time and money are wasted through the daily routine of ‘check email-detect spam-delete’ actions.
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