Actrix Newsletter June 2003

This newsletter has been produced to help you get the most out of the Internet,
and to keep you, as an Actrix customer, informed of developments and services within the company.
Past newsletters may be viewed at http://editor.actrix.co.nz/
Newsletters are now archived by article at http://editor.actrix.co.nz/byarticle/
Questions and comments about the newsletter can be e-mailed to editor@actrix.co.nz
Other inquiries should be e-mailed to support@actrix.co.nz

by Rob Zorn

Many experts are now saying that spyware (also known as adware) is the next scourge of the Internet. Its the "next frontier of nastiness," according to Marquis Grove of Security News Portal, and online security news site. Awareness about Spam and viruses is higher these days than its ever been, and the amount of filtering and anti-virus software now in use is having a positive impact on these problems.

What people are not all that aware of is the recent increase in the number of sneaky little programs that find their way onto your computer and report information about you and your surfing habits back to some corporation or coterie of market analysts somewhere. This is exactly what spyware is and does. Basically, spyware is any software that uses your internet connection without your knowledge or clear permission to send information across the net. Sometimes these "marketers" just collect information to build statistical overviews of net use for their own development projects. While this may not do you any direct harm, it is still information theft and it's hard to think of a situation where one could feel comfortable with this process.

In other cases, and this is the type that seems to be on the rise, information about you is analysed to better know what pop-up ads are best to send your way. The spyware program will update itself with pop-up ads specially designed for you and the sort of things your surfing habits reveal you to be interested in, and can even fling these up at you at times when you're not online! Spyware can also play with your settings. In some cases it can disable your Zone Alarm firewall, and it is frequently responsible for changing the default homepage setting in your browser and repeatedly changing it back no matter how many times you try and correct the problem yourself. Sometimes the spyware even captures and records your keystrokes!

By using your connection to make its "calls home," of course, the spyware is also slowing down your normal surfing. Imagine the effect upon your Internet speed if you have several of these nasties operating in stealth mode each time you are online.

This sort of problem certainly seems to be increasing. In the last few weeks a number of customers have contacted me about problems with pop-ups or homepage setting changes, and in each case, getting rid of the spyware solved the problem. According to a December 2002 report from research firm GartnerG2, more than 20 million people now have spyware tangling up their machines.

Most commonly, Spyware comes bundled with other software that is, or appears to be, more legitimate. Some famous examples include Real Networks who make Real Player and, according to Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation, were "reportedly caught red-handed secretly profiling their users' listening habits." Another recent example is the popular Kazaa peer-to-peer program used by millions around the world to share MP3s. An article from the Contra Costa Times by Doug Bedell describes how Kazaa partnered with Brilliant Digital, a software company which provided the spyware program that is quietly installed with Kazaa. It's quite alarming when you consider that over 60 million people around the world have installed Kazaa. Maybe you or someone who uses your computer has even installed it on your computer!

It has to be said, though, that in almost all cases, spyware makes it onto your computer with your unwitting permission. You'll be surfing away, intent on viewing whatever you're after, or finding some piece of information you need. Suddenly a box pops up like the one pictured here asking whether you want to download and install some "wonderful little piece of software." Usually, the product will look quite inviting - an enhancement to your computer's clock, or something that will supposedly speed up your connection, or whatever. Sometimes the box pretends to be offering you a software enhancement that will allow you to view their web site better. I suspect this is often the online equivalent of the "impulse buy." You decide the offer sounds pretty good, and it's free after all, so you go ahead and download it.

As the product starts to install itself, it will usually present you with what's known as a EULA - or End User License Agreement. EULAs are basically the fine print, and most people don't bother to read them very carefully. One even suspects they are often deliberately written in a lengthy manner that is difficult to decipher just so that people will give up before they spot what they're really about to agree to. Once you've clicked that you accept the EULA, the program installs, and begins reporting the sorts of things you do online back to its mother ship. In almost all cases, people infected with this sort of spyware don't even realise this is happening.

One of the most famous of these sorts of outfits is Gator. You can read their website where they explain exactly what they do at www.gator.com. They're quite open about it and because of this, they are doing nothing illegal. However, it is doubtful that many people really understand that Gator will to use their Internet connection to report on their online movements. All it takes is for this sort of thing to happen a few times, and suddenly you find that your internet connection is slow as a week full of exams. No wonder! Your Internet connection is being used up by all the spyware you have installed.

Another "helpful" thing that Spyware may do is pop ads up at you all the time. Again, Gator represents a great example. At their web site you can read about why your company should choose to advertise via their services. It's because their software tracks what sorts of sites each consumer goes to, and then throws ads at them that are tailored to their interests. The spyware continually updates itself with a store of pop-up ads (again using your connection speed and time) and can even throw these up at you while you're offline! No wonder so many people are complaining about pop-up ads these days!

There are other types of spyware, of course. Eblaster, for example is specifically designed for snooping on your children or spouse. It copies to you any e-mails sent, and all of the keystrokes of your target. Of course that sort of software has its uses, but is also open to a lot of abuse. It's not really the sort of thing we're discussing here though, as it is deliberately installed by somebody in full knowledge.

There are, of course, the telltale signs as mentioned above. Is your computer running like a dog? Is your connection really slow these days yet you can remember a time when it was a lot faster? Are you suffering from a more ridiculous amount of pop-up ads than usual? Note here that many web sites employ pop-ups. Just because you get a few here and there doesn't mean your computer has become infested with spyware. If an ad pops up at you while you are offline, though, you almost certainly do have some spyware conducting its nefarious business behind the scenes.

By far the best way to tell, though, is to run a spyware removal tool. These won't do any harm if your machine is clean, and if you are infected, the removal tool will usually report back what it found and what it removed for you.

There are several spyware removal tools available, and a couple are even free. Spybot Search and Destroy is available for free download at http://security.kolla.de/ and gets pretty good media reviews. The writer wants nothing more than that you say a prayer for him and his girlfriend, though there is a EULA to read and agree to before you run the program. As EULAs go, though, it is short, easy to follow, and fair.

It would be a good idea to read the quick tutorial once you have downloaded and installed Spybot Search and Destroy (roughly 3.5 MB in size). Open the program, click the Check for Problems button, and you're away. Spybot will search your system for almost 6000 pieces of spyware. It will then report all that it found in a list. The list is pretty good. You can click on each item to see what the piece of spyware is, who made it, and what it is designed to do.

Click the Fix Selected Problems button, and it will go and take care of as many of the problems as it can for you. Note that you may need to restart before it can finish getting rid of them all. An update button also features when you first start the program so you can get the latest spyware definitions just like with an anti-virus program. It is recommended that you run Spybot Search and Destroy once per week, and update it before you do.

One thing I really liked about Spybot Search and Destroy was its nifty little "immunise" feature that purports to block your machine from being infected by 185 possible future intrusions. However, as yet I am not able to test how effective this process is.

Ad-aware is another free spyware removal program that gets good media reviews. This program's homepage is at http://lavasoft.element5.com/software/adaware/ and you can find download links at nearby locations there too. The program is smaller (just under 1.5MB) and sleeker in its design. Again the install procedure asks you to agree to EULA, and again, the EULA appears to be reasonable and fair. This one has a Scan Now button over to the left. Click that and you'll be asked to specify the drives if you don't want to go with the default settings (and default settings are probably fine). Once it has done its work it will present you with a list very similar to the one produced by Spybot Search and Destroy. You then click the Quarantine and Fix button, and off it goes cleaning your system of spyware. Ad-aware is less forthcoming with information about the nasties it has found than Spybot Search and Destroy

I was reasonably impressed with both programs and am reluctant to recommend one over the other. Each seemed to find stuff that the other didn't, and between the two of them, all spyware was removed from my system (and most of what was there just consisted of tracking cookies). I guess the best thing to do would be to start with one of them. If it does a reasonable job, then fine. If it says it can't remove some things (and each program admits that it may present you with the occasional false alarm) then try the other one. If I had to go with one, I'd probably suggest Ad-aware but really only because it is less of a download and because I found its aesthetic look and feel to be so pleasing.

I would seriously recommend that customers run one of these programs. I think many will be surprised at what is found on their machines. By all reports, these programs are trustworthy and pretty effective, but, of course, I have to put a disclaimer in here too. Advice is given in good faith and with best intentions, but you install and run software at your own risk.

If you'd like to read more about spyware, here are a couple of helpful articles:

Actrix Security Suite Feedback

0303badge.jpg (4903 bytes) So far, customer response to the Actrix Security Suite has been very positive. We are particularly proud of CyberFilter, a product we've developed ourselves based on TMDA concepts. I have no doubt in my mind that, when used properly, it is the most effective anti-Spam measure available. Customers seem to agree. We've added a feedback section to the Security Suite pages on our web site. To check out what others have said, particularly about CyberFilter, click here.

The Actrix Security Suite was released two months ago now on 24 March. CyberScan is an anti-Virus product that scans incoming e-mails in order to remove viruses, and CyberFilter is a powerful anti-Spam product that has proven to be nearly 100% effective in eliminating Spam. We've tried to provide these products as cheaply as possible (and remember, the first month is free while you try before you buy). See the March newsletter if you'd like to read more specifically about how The Security Suite works, and then check out: http://www.actrix.co.nz/domestic/security/index.php.

A Little Levity

Writing With Emotional Appeal

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"

He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.

ispsecretroom.jpg (26461 bytes)

Quotes:

The goal of Computer Science is to build something that will last at least until building is complete.

A television may insult your intelligence, but nothing rubs it in like a computer.

There's a statistical theory that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and set them to work, they'd eventually come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the Internet, we now know this isn't true. - Ian Hart

You Don't Need to Miss Phonecalls While Online

Actrix has available a product that allows customers to monitor incoming calls while on the Internet. The product has been developed here by NEC New Zealand and is called inContact, Internet Call Waiting (ICW). It comes in two available versions: Standard ($5.95/month) and Pro ($9.95/month). At this stage the service is only available for those in the Wellington and Auckland free-calling areas, and customers wishing to purchase the service will need to have call diversion activated on their phonelines.

The Benefits: Instead of someone receiving a busy tone or being forwarded to Voicemail when they try to call you while you're online, inContact ICW will notify you by triggering a pop-up on your PC advising you of the call and who is calling. Depending on which version you choose, you will then have the following options to help you stay informed and in charge while online:

Catch the call: Don't miss the important calls while surfing the net. It may be a call from one of your children out on the town needing to get home. It may be a sales opportunity for a business run from the home. You can now be aware of these calls and deal with them without having to disconnect.

Control - you decide what to do: See who is calling and you choose how to handle it. Forward it to a mobile (Pro version only), answer it (Pro version only), ignore it, record a message from the caller and have it e-mailed to yourself while you stay online (both versions).

Convenience - get the message quickly: Send the call to voice-mail (Pro version only) and get it delivered by e-mail while still online. You won't need to disconnect from the internet, dial in to your voicemail etc to get your message. You may not need other voicemail products now.

Keep it simple - automate it: Set up automatic responses for all calls. Set up different automatic responses based on who is calling; eg forward work calls to your mobile after 5 seconds, or automatically drop your internet connection and answer calls from your kids, partner, best friend .... or mother in-law !!! (Functionality more limited in the Standard version.)

Flexibility - surf anytime: You don't have to delay connecting to the internet if you're expecting a call, or conversely you don't have to disconnect if you're expecting that call from the UK. You have more flexibility in when and how long you surf.

Flexibility - personalise your settings: Create your own phone book, choose your own alerting sounds for when you receive a call. Set up your own automatic responses.

Save money: inContact provides several services all in one, Call Waiting, Caller Line Identity, Voicemail, Call Logging, on-line control of call diversion on a caller by caller basis.

Interested?: If you're interested in this Internet Call Waiting service through Actrix, then head on over to www.icw.net.nz. There is a lot more information about the product, how it works etc, available there. Then, if you think you'd like to order, or if you just want to know more, you can click the link to the Actrix online info request form. Fill this out to let us know when a good time for us to contact you by phone would be. We'll give you a call and answer your questions or we can sign you up right then and there.

All you have to do after that is download the software and install it. It's easy to understand and install, but if you like, we can talk you through that process too.

Sign-up now and Actrix will waive the $9.95 set-up fee, PLUS you will receive a free Internet headset/microphone.

For more information on this service and/or to place your order, please go to www.icw.net.nz

Some people may find the following statistics to be of interest. They reveal quite a bit about what sorts of software is being used by Actrix customers. During April www.actrix.co.nz experienced the following:

If you'd like to ask a question or request some help on any Actrix or Internet-related matter. Simply send me an e-mail with the word "forum" in the subject line and check back next month to see the results! By the same token, if you read something here and think you may have something to suggest, please feel more than free.

Alan asks: Hi, a question about news groups which may also interest other readers; I would like to join a news group but have heard of spam problems if my email address is shown. How do I set up Outlook Express to suppress this information? cheers, Alan

Hi Alan, Unfortunately, you can't get Outlook Express to suppress your address when you use it to access news groups. It forces you to include one. However, you can do things to make your e-mail address less susceptible to spam-harvesting.

When you use Outlook express as a News Reader, you need to set up a new "account" (Tools/Accounts/News/Add...). In order to reduce Spam, a lot of people alter their e-mail address in subtle ways. For example: instead of writing fredlmnop@actrix.co.nz, they write fredlmnop@actrixdotcodotnz . You could also put in something like fredlmnop@actrix.co.nznospam . The idea is to put something there that will allow people to work our what your real address is easily enough so that they can reply to you, but that won't work when automatically harvested for a Spam list.

Spammers often harvest e-mail addresses from newsgroups by using little robot programs that scour the newsgroups copying all the e-mail addresses. Of course the spammer ends up with thousands of addresses and usually isn't able to check them all. The disadvantage is that if someone clicks on reply because they want to correspond with you (which is often what news groups are all about) the false e-mail address will come up in their reply, and unless they notice it, their message to you will bounce back to them. Most people in news groups are savvy to the practice of masking your e-mail address in these ways, and will spot it, but you can't always be sure. Hopefully, if they miss it the first time, they will examine the reason why their first message bounced and quickly see the problem.

One last option would be to put a small note at the bottom of your posts to the newsgroup suggesting that your e-mail address be "fixed" before anyone replies to you directly. This too is a reasonably common practice.

Paul Henson writes: I use Outlook Express 5. It only happens with a very few e-mail addresses, but when I hit the reply button to a message received, the recipient gets a message that consists of "yp" and some hieroglyphics. The intended message gets lost. If I select the address from my address book, there's no problem. I have my settings on rich text and in Tools/Options/Send, I have selected "reply to messages in the format they were sent." The recipient of my e-mails has her setting on rich text, also. Any clues? Thanks.

Gidday Paul. I hadn't come across this one, but Steve Trayhorne and Jim Breen from our Support crew were quick to point out that the problem you describe is a known bug if you use HTML for your reply e-mails and you also have your options set to not include the original message in the reply.

The simplest way to fix this would be to go Tools/Options and then select the Reply tab. Check the box that is labelled "Include message in reply." If you really don't want the original message to be in the reply, then you may have to delete it manually.

While we're on the topic, some readers may not be aware that Outlook Express has a number of options that can be experimented with. Just click Tools and then Options on the Menu Bar at the top of the screen.

Be careful with the settings under Security, Connection and Maintenance, and if you're not sure, don't make any changes there. The rest of the sections are pretty straightforward and you can experiment with some settings changes fairly safely. The old practice of remembering how things were when they worked okay (and writing it down before you play) will probably help you ensure you don't end up getting into a situation you can't get yourself out of. Worse comes to worse and our free help desk (for Actrix customers) will usually be able to help - 0800-228749.

Carol Flanagan writes: I have a major problem with my out going mail. I can't send images/pics of any sort. They go out as computerese talk and when sending they go out as part one of several. Eg. if it's a Powerpoint e-mail of 6 images it will split it up into 6 separate e-mails, all unviewable. Can you help please?

Thanks to Steve Trayhorne for this reply: The problem you are having relates to an advanced setting in Outlook Express:"Break apart messages larger than..." This feature is not active by default and would have to have been turned on manually on your computer. With this in mind you may wish to discuss the reason this feature was activated with other users of your computer.

To turn off."Break apart messages larger than..."

More Information:

To combine and decode e-mails that have been split in to parts:

Fritha Jameson writes: I was doing a little checking of properties for some of my e-mails and discovered the following:

      Received: from blood.actrix.co.nz (unknown [192.168.30.41])
      by hardrain.actrix.co.nz (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3F9F420C010
      for you@actrix.gen.nz ; Mon, 28 Apr 2003 10:33:08 +1200 (NZST)

My question is: Who/what is blood.actrix.co.nz and hardrain.actrix.co.nz? Is this normal?

Hi Fritha, Yes, it's quite normal.

Hardrain, slowtrain, blood, desire etc, are simply the names of our mail servers. If an e-mail for you was received by Actrix, usually either blood or desire would deal with it. If you were to send yourself an e-mail to the address you@blood.actrix.co.nz, you would be specifying that you only wanted blood to receive and dispatch your e-mail. This isn't recommended, of course. Technicians always have at least two servers assigned to any one job. If one falls over, the other one can take up the load while the broken one is fixed. If you specify that you only want blood to deal with your mail, then desire may not jump in and help you if you're trying to send mail while blood is down. Also, server tasks and names can be changed without notice.

Technicians usually give a group of servers names that fit with a certain theme. Our web servers here are normally named after mythical places: arcadia, xanadu etc. Our mail servers are named after Bob Dylan albums. I heard that the servers at another ISP were originally named after one of the founder's past girlfriends. I can't say for sure whether this is true, but it wouldn't surprise me. I know that technicians often quite enjoy working out what the naming conventions of other organisations are. The name of a new server or a new naming convention can cause a mass discussion which can last days...

As they're not usually in the public eye, and only spotted by people who scrutinise their mail headers, not a great deal of time tends to be spent explaining this sort of thing.

Mouse Speed

If you find your mouse pointer is too slow or you want to slow it down, you can adjust the speed by going to Apple menu/Control panels/Mouse.

Select the speed that suits you.

Printing Slow

If you find your printer is slow to spool and print have a look at your settings in Chooser.

Go to Apple menu/Chooser.

Click on the printer icon and check if you have background printing on. If so select it off and printing will be much faster.

Date/Time

If your date or time is incorrect on your computer this affects the time that is placed in your e-mail headers and can be confusing for recipients. To correct your time go to Apple menu/Control panels/Date&Time.

Correct your time here and also check the time zone is selected to NZ.

Make an Alias for your Program

It is sometimes useful to have an alias to a program which you can place somewhere for easy access. To make an Alias for Remote Access:

A duplicate of Remote Access will now show beside the original and you can drag this to a convenient place such as you desktop and use this to connect and disconnect from the internet.

You can do the same with any program. For example, to make an alias for Outlook Express find the OE folder, open it and find the OE program. Highlight it and go to File/make alias.

Printing Utility

You have probably been on a website and wanted to print just a selection of the page and not the complete website. There are several utilities available that will allow this but they are costly to buy. There is a shareware program available called Net Print which works very well. When this is installed all you need to do is select the portion of the text you want to print or save and then go to the Net Print icon showing at the top of your screen and select Print. This saves a lot of ink as well.

You can download Net Print at http://www93.pair.com/johnmoe/.

Silence your Modem

If the noise the modem makes during connecting is annoying you, it is easy to stop. Go to Apple menu/Control panels/Modem.

Sound - Select the Off button

Please note: Actrix supplies links to these sites for your interest and possible use. We cannot endorse or take any responsibility for their contents. Got a site you think would be neat to share with other readers? Let me know and receive a free Norrie the Nerd chocolate bar courtesy of Actrix!

A Gadzillion Things to Think About
www.gadzillionthings.net/ - According to Confucious, a mind's journey begins with a single Why? An unanswered question is better than an unquestioned answer. This site encourages you to use your imagination creatively and think about, well, nearly a gadzillion things (around 10,640 - to be exact). You can submit your own questions and statements for consideration too.

Band Name Meanings
www.8ung.at/nina_m/bandnames.htm - It's easy to tell the meaning or significance of the names of a lot of bands, but some can be quite mystifying. What are Foo Fighters? Who was Dido, and what do you do with Nine Inch Nails? This site does a pretty good job of collecting and categorising various band names and how they came about.

When I Was Little
www.wheniwaslittle.net/ - Anyone is invited to send in a baby picture of themselves (along with a current photo) to this baby-picture project. The pictures are then placed side-by-side, allowing you to see how a person has grown and aged through the years. Effort seems to have been taken to keep the file size of the pictures down, so they don't take forever to load. Oh how cute we all once were...........

More Online Illusions
www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Illusions.html# - Here's another well-presented page of optical illusions. Click each of the blue squares and a pop-up illusions will be created. When you get bored with that, check out some of the other weirdness and anomalies presented at the main site - http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/.

World Religions, Traditions and Mysteries
www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm - From Alchemy, Atlantis and Americana through to UFOs and Zoroastrianism, this site attempts to be a "freely available non-profit archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult and esoteric topics. Texts are presented in English translation and, in some cases, in the original language.... no particular agenda other than promoting religious tolerance and scholarship." There are lots and lots of essays, texts and complete books available.

Rock Paper Scissors Rules and Strategy Guide
www.worldrps.com/gbasics.html - It's not just a game! To many it's the world's most popular decision-making process. The World RPS Society is out to standardise it as a sport, hold tournaments, and keep people from sullying real RPS with silly ideas like dynamite and water. Once you've learned the basics, it's time to tackle advanced strategies, study the opening gambits of the masters, and then you can practice your RPS technique against a virtual trainer!

Religious Symbolism in The Matrix
http://awesomehouse.com/matrix/intro.html - According to the writers and producers, much of the religious symbolism in the first Matrix movie is quite deliberate. This site primarily concerns itself with the parallels between Neo and Jesus (his virgin birth, death, resurrection and ascension, as well as the messianic role he plays. After the parallels are presented, there are links to further pages, interviews with the actors who comment on the symbolism and so forth. Great stuff!

Disturbing Auctions
www.disturbingauctions.com/ - Highlighting the bizarre, disturbing, and just plain weird, this site offers nearly a hundred examples of "Who would ever buy that?" archived for your viewing pleasure. Items include a collection of Farrah Fawcett heads, a black velvet Jesus blessing an 18-wheeler, a doll made from beer cans, and a dried alligator in a bridal outfit. Trained disturbing-auction spotters update the daily message board with the latest in crazy e-commerce.

Online Rorschach Test
www.deltabravo.net/custody/rorschach.htm - This controversial site explains the real Rorschach Test: the one where the psychologist shows the patient inkblots, and interprets what they can see in the pictures, and what that reveals about their psychological wellbeing. Each card in the test is briefly explained, and so are what the various responses to the images could reveal. Good for the psychologically curious. Be sure you read the blurb at the beginning before you look through the test, though.

Why am I Getting All This Spam?
www.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.shtml - This site reports on a six-month long experiment conducted by the Center for Democracy and Technology aimed at determining the different ways in which e-mail addresses attract Spam. The results offer Internet users insights about what online behaviour results in the most spam and it also debunks some of the myths.

Where is Your Birthday in Pi?
http://www.facade.com/legacy/amiinpi/ - Enter the string of numbers that represents your birthday, and this site will find out how far into pi you have to go to find those numbers occurring. Why would you want to know this? I have no idea. It's just one more example, though, of the wonderful enrichment the Internet can bring to your life...

Solitaire with Iraqi Playing Cards
http://www.virtualsined.com/wanted/ - Were you tempted to order yourself a set of those playing cards given to U.S. soldiers featuring the most wanted Iraqi leaders? If you never got around to getting yourself a set, don't worry. Here you can play Solitaire online using those very cards. It's a Macromedia Flash game, and the good thing about that is that once the game is fully loaded, you can go offline and continue to play. You don't need to chew up your online time or tie up your phone line.

Employers in the gun over email porn: Employers who do not take steps to block offensive spam from arriving in workers' inboxes may be open to sexual harassment claims from their staff. Pornographic or offensive images appearing on a worker's screen by way of unsolicited or junk email (spam) could also qualify as evidence of a "hostile work environment", a situation contravening the Human Rights Act. Click here for more.

NZ'ers turn to religion on the net : Internet intelligence company says more kiwis are taking their spiritual journeys along the information super-highway. New Zealanders are turning to God... but they're doing it on the Internet. Click here for more.

New InternetNZ 'code' to tackle spam: A redrafted code of practice from the country's internet policy guardians is likely to include a section on spam, with a suggestion that ISPs make sure customers can easily incorporate spam filters with their service. Click here for more.

Employers should crack down on internet misuse, says law firm : New Zealand businesses need to crack down on internet misuse by employees, a new survey says. The study by international law firm Kensington Swan follows a similar report compiled in Britain last year. It showed New Zealand companies lagged behind Britain when it came to control of the internet and email by staff. Click here for more.

Adopt code, ISPs urged : Internet Society executive director Peter Macauley says political pressure to impose controls on ISPs could build as rapidly as did demands for tough new dog control laws – if the industry again fails to regulate itself. Click here for more.

Google News Kiwi-style: Google News was launched last September, boasting news and photos from more than 4500 news sources worldwide. The Kiwi version displayed New Zealand-related content more prominently, and had a special category devoted to national news as well as world, business, entertainment, technology and sport, Google said in a statement today. Click here for more.

NewZealand.com saga continues: The saga of the US$500,000 paid by the New Zealand government for domain NewZealand.com is still rolling on, with official responses to Parliamentary questions producing more queries than they did answers. Click here for more.

Kiwi encyclopedia online next year: The First tranche of an online encyclopedia being compiled by the Culture and Heritage Ministry at a cost of $10 million should be on the Web early next year. Ministry project head Jock Phillips says the initial instalment of the encyclopedia will provide information about the country's different ethnic groups and iwi. Click here for more.

Medicines website planned : The Health Ministry will spend a few hundred thousand dollars on a website which will describe the known effects of complementary and alternative medicines, such as vitamin supplements and "natural remedies". Click here for more.

US court rejects suit against web song-swappers: A federal court in Los Angeles denied a request to shut down Internet song-swapping services Grokster and Morpheus yesterday, handing a stunning setback to the record labels and movie studios that have sought to curb unauthorized downloading of their works. Click here for more.

The rise of the keyring drive: The floppy disk is dead. Long live the pocket drive, a tiny piece of kit that is a revolution. There's a lot of guff about the unstoppable march of technology - not least from the people who want us to buy it. Click here for more.

Hackers have fun with Madonna decoy: Anyone who thinks they can control the Internet received an object lesson during the past week. It all started when Madonna literally lent her voice to a popular antipiracy technique. Click here for more.

Where is that IP?: The Internet is really quite big, it spans virtually every country on the globe and doesn't know about mundane things like borders, countries and other features imposed by us humans. Click here for more.

ISPs Up the Ante in Spam Fight: They're mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore. It's not news that Internet service providers are sick of spam, but now it seems their patience has truly worn thin. Their servers are gagging on an overload of junk mail, they have to pay people to block and purge spammers' bogus transmissions from their systems and they are just plain fed up with subsidizing the spam industry. Click here for more.

Six Technologies That Will Change the World: Imagine robots that can read your mood and ink-jet printers that can crank out transplantable hearts. The visionaries you are about to meet have not only imagined these things -- they're hard at work building them. Click here for more.

Washington conference to tackle spam deluge: Death comes once a lifetime, taxes come once a year. Spam, as any Internet user will tell you, arrives all day, every day. Unwanted junk email has grown to the point where it now accounts for nearly half of all email traffic... Click here for more.

ISP Fixes P2P: Soaring volumes of peer-to-peer traffic are creating plenty of problems for a lot of service providers, but a municipally held ISP operated by the Coldwater, Mich., appears to have found a solution to some of them. The problems in its case were twofold. First, its brand new network quickly became choked with traffic that turned out to be generated by a mere six customers... Click here for more.

E-pharmacies could harm consumers' health: Consumers could be endangering their health by buying drugs on the internet, Australian doctors say. Not all web sites provide enough information and advice on the products they sell... Click here for more.

Record labels work to stem piracy : Some of the world's largest record labels are quietly financing the creation of programs by small software firms that, if deployed, would sabotage the computers and internet connections of people who download pirated music, according to a newspaper report. Click here for more.

Database to link "virtual" child porn to real victims: Investigators whose ability to crack down on "virtual" child porn was limited by the courts have turned to a network of computer databases to prove that kids depicted in online images actually exist. Click here for more.

Rise of the Spam Zombies: Pressed by increasingly effective anti-spam efforts, senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail are resorting to outright criminality in their efforts to conceal the source of their ill-sent missives, using Trojan horses to turn the computers of innocent netizens into secret spam zombies. Click here for more.

Baghdad blogger re-appears: An Iraqi web logger knocked offline by the war in Iraq has resurfaced. During the early days of the conflict, the Dear Raed web log was avidly read by thousands of web users keen to find out how it was changing the lives of ordinary Iraqis. Click here for more.

Bidding for Trouble?: Online Auctions Have Everything - Including, increasingly, scam artists. Antiques dealer Thomas Perry had taken a picture of a giant antique teak ship's wheel outside his gallery in Chester, Conn., and offered it for sale on his One of a Kind Antiques Web site. It added to the charm of the photo that Buffalo, his poodle, had wandered into the shot. Click here for more.

Iran tries to restrict media Web sites: Iran has ordered new restrictions on the Internet, requiring service providers to block a number of critical news and immoral sites in the latest stage of a long-running crackdown on independent media. Click here for more.

Elderly get a taste of the net: Silver surfers are being targeted in a month-long campaign to get older people using the internet. Age Concern is offering free net taster sessions in a bid to help older people overcome any worries they have about using web browsers and e-mail. Click here for more.

Spammer-friendly computers targeted: WASHINGTON: Officials from the United States and four other countries took action yesterday to fix some 1000 poorly configured email servers that may be used by unscrupulous email marketers to cover their tracks. Click here for more.

Internet Users Got Game: Nearly as many gamers play on their computers as they play with the PlayStation2 console, according to research from Lucid Marketing . The information, gleaned from surveys with nearly 600 self-identified gamers in late April 2003, creates a comprehensive image of the role the Internet plays with fun-loving consumers, along with a profile of the typical gamer. Click here for more.

Microsoft Proposes Law on Junk E-Mail : Microsoft Corp. is proposing a new legislative approach to battling junk e-mail, hoping to bridge a widening gap between various industry and consumer groups that threatens to bog down congressional efforts to eradicate spam. Click here for more.

Microsoft's Ugly Little Registration Bug: If you patch your systems to rid yourself of one bug, you wind up with an entirely new bug. This seems to be a common theme with Microsoft -- a company that can't seem to understand why its customers don't rush to install every patch. Click here for more.

Gates quells fears over new PC security: Consumers shouldn't be worried that Microsoft Corp.'s new security technology will wrest control of their PCs and give it to media companies, Bill Gates said this week. They can always choose not to use it, he said. Click here for more.

Microsoft executive says next version of Windows is due in 2005: Microsoft Corp. , which makes the Windows operating system used to run more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers, said Wednesday it will begin selling a new version of the program in 2005. Click here for more.

Microsoft admits Passport breach: Microsoft acknowledged a security flaw Thursday in its popular Internet Passport service that left 200 million consumer accounts vulnerable to hackers and thieves — an admission that could expose the company to a hefty fine from U.S. regulators. Click here for more.

Consider open source - SSC: State Services Commissioner Michael Wintringham has written to the heads of all government agencies, encouraging them to assess open source options when buying software. Click here for more.

Telstra solves identity crisis with penguin power: Australia's largest telco Telstra has lifted the cone of silence on the deployment of Linux over its desktop population in a trailblazing speech by its national manager for security architecture Michael Warner to an identity and access management conference in Sydney. Click here for more.

Microsoft discounts against Linux: Microsoft has a strategy to discount its products heavily when the software giant competes for orders against the emerging license-free Linux operating system, the International Herald Tribune newspaper said on Thursday. Click here for more.

Linux a key concern at Microsoft summit: SEATTLE — It doesn't top the official agenda, but as government leaders converge at Microsoft Corp. for an annual conference, one of the company's major competitors — Linux — is likely to be on executives' minds. Click here for more.

Victorian group questions SCO's Linux claims: A Victorian Open Source group says it is bemused by the suggestion that any of the Linux source code contains proprietary UNIX code or trade secrets Click here for more.

iTunes Music Store launches with 200K+ songs: Apple today introduced the iTunes Music Store, an online music store that Apple bills as "Downloads done right." The service provides users with access to over 200,000 songs without any subscription fees. Click here for more.

Apple sells over 1 million songs in the first week: Announced last week, Apple's iTunes Music Store has sold over 1 million songs in the first week, the company announced on Monday. Click here for more.

Will This Be the Summer of Mac?: A promising new set of chips, a possible Quark version for OS X, a surge in online advertising, and a new music store could goose sales -- and the stock Click here for more.

Fake bank site part of Nigerian scam: They’re certainly persistent. Another flavor of the well-known Nigerian scam has popped up, this one even more elaborate than the familiar e-mail solicitation. The scam appears to target former recipients who were initially drawn in by an e-mail offer, but abandoned the scheme half-way through. Click here for more.

Microsoft patches IE, Outlook holes: Microsoft once again has welcomed Wednesday with patches for security flaws discovered in its Windows applications. The software giant warned customers they should apply updates for both Internet Explorer (IE) and Outlook Express to fix critical security vulnerabilities that could let attackers run programs on a victim’s PC. Click here for more.

Sneaky software hijacks more browsers: Patrick Ewalt still fumes about being hijacked on the Internet. Last fall, he clicked on a pop-up ad and got diverted to the ad's Web site, which then implanted itself as the first page to appear whenever Ewalt started his Web browser. Click here for more.

Fizzer spreads through e-mail, Kazaa: Computer users are being warned of a new virus which has been spreading rapidly in the wild in the Far East and has now reached Europe. Fizzer is a self-propagating worm which can propogates itself via e-mail and peer-to-peer file sharing service Kazaa. Click here for more.

Popular software may be monitoring your habits: When Roger Olney used the Kazaa file-sharing service to download a utility for his home computer, he got a rude introduction to the slippery world of spyware. First, he mistakenly downloaded and installed a file called eblaster.exe. Click here for more.

Privacy vs. Convenience: It's Up to You: A new flaw in Microsoft's Passport personal-info compiler highlights again the trade-off consumers often make without thinking So much for the trustworthy computing that Microsoft has vowed to deliver so that personal computers can at last be a haven for personal data. Click here for more.

World's first internet loo planned : The world's first portable lavatory with internet access is due to be unveiled in Britain this summer. Click here for more.

Son offered for sale on internet : A man who jokingly offered his five-year-old son for sale on the internet has had to explain himself to police after a complaint from a concerned web surfer. Click here for more.

Thanks again for reading the Actrix newsletter. Feedback can be sent to me via the e-mail address listed below. Please limit this to comments/suggestions regarding the newsletter. Requests for support should go to the Actrix Help Desk (support@actrix.co.nz) or to the Accounts Department (accounts@actrix.co.nz).

Take care through June,

Rob Zorn
editor@actrix.co.nz
http://editor.actrix.co.nz