Total volume of spam increases by more than 50 per cent in second half of 2007

The Sidney Morning Herald reports that “Internet security provider Marshal has released the findings of its latest Threat Research and Content Engineering report for the second half of 2007, which found that the total volume of spam increased by more than 50 per cent.  Spam promoting pharmaceuticals, such as weight loss pills, were the dominant category in 2007, comprising nearly 70 per cent of all spam.  The biggest drop in spam was those relating to stocks and options, comprising only one per cent of all spam, compared to 50 per cent in February 2007.”

In a different article, the Sidney Morning Herald writes that “New York City prosecutors today endorsed the United States’ first proposed law to ban registered sex offenders from social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, officials said.  The district attorneys from all five of the city’s boroughs announced their support for New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s proposal, which would ban thousands of the state’s sex offenders from communicating with minors online.  The latest of several initiatives taken by Cuomo’s office, the law would force sexual predators to register their instant messaging screen names and enable sites like MySpace and Facebook to block their access.”

According to Reuters, “Comcast Corp has told U.S. regulators it uses reasonable measures to manage traffic moving over its broadband service as some of its customers overwhelm the network by using file-sharing applications like BitTorrent. In an 80-page filing with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, Comcast gave its most detailed explanation of how it manages Internet traffic on its service, naming BitTorrent as prime culprit, but again denied it blocks content, applications or discriminates among providers.  Comcast, which is the second largest U.S. Internet service provider with more than 13 million subscribers, said the use of network management was essential to avoid congestion and impairment of some applications such as online video sites Joost and Veoh.”

Jason Matusow today has a good blog post praising the State of Minneapolis for its balanced, considered and concise report on document formats.

According to the New York Times, “[b]usinesses, large and small, will be directly helped by the new economic stimulus legislation passed by Congress last week. But small businesses, in particular, may get the biggest lift indirectly — from consumers spending their tax rebates. The $168 billion measure, which was approved by both houses of Congress with uncommon swiftness, includes rebates for taxpayers and incentives for businesses, all intended to bolster the sagging economy. President Bush is expected to sign it this week."