porn gang touches ground at Yahoo Small Business
Recently I've been getting porn spam from a big Canadian outfit called Webfinity a/k/a Python Video a/k/a Dynamic Pipe.
It uses an extra layer of indirection, exploiting a parade of compromised Microsoft Windows machines in consumers' homes. If you click on a link in the spam, the site you eventually reach attacks your PC with malicious software, and your Microsoft PC becomes part of Python's porn server network. Ironic, eh?
The extra layer requires some kind of stable support base. That base is the domain name registration function at Yahoo Small Business hosting. Details here. Python has to register dozens of new nonsense domain names daily, at ten bucks a pop. Think Yahoo doesn't know? You already knew Yahoo Inc was part of the Nigerian advance free fraud gang's support network. Now you know they help bring you b eastiality porn spam, and malicious software, too.
Now tell me again why Yahoo Mail and Yahoogroups is so popular among Greens?
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Most computer users, even those who are progressives, radicals, Greens, are like most automobile drivers, most tv watchers, etc: they know how to make it run, but not how it works or how to fix it.
I've seen some who are paranoid about cookies to the point of simply refusing to use the web if it isn't AOL or Yahoo. But most want the benefits of the Web -- as long as it is simple and easy, and that includes many who have a fine appreciatiation for the dangers of corporate power in the information age.
In many ways, I'm among that group. I use Yahoogroups for most of my projects/organizations simply because I'm already there using other lists and it simplifies my life and political organizing. I realize there's a sacrifice or risk I'm taking, but the benefit -- and it's a big one for what I do -- is that most folks know their way around that interface, and I've learned they are scared off by Mailman and other options. If you want people to use it -- and that is the idea -- you sometimes have to give up what you'd rather not.
And I'm a huge techie compared to most (tho I'm not at all, compared to Cameron). What you suggest is a worthwhile project, but to make it work financially and politically, it would need to be accompanied by a major educational effort to help users grow comfortable with different technology, develop their abilities and expand their understanding of the privacy issues. Since most techies don't seem to be very good teachers, this project is even more daunting than you might think.
This is a great topic for discussion by Greens, though. The concerns are growing ever greater, as Cameron points out. I really appreciate him opening it and I hope we can dialog and work together to see a better way forward. I'd just say it will take time -- and patience from the tech team.
"like most automobile drivers, most tv watchers, etc: they know how to make it run, but not how it works or how to fix it."
I think I see that flawed analogy at least once a week. It's Greens' and other progressives' favorite excuse for choosing socially irresponsible vendors, or poor quality or overpriced, for Internet services and computing equipment including software.
This isn't about "knowing how it works or how to fix it." It's about considering your social values as well as price and convenience when you decide where to buy it. That's not a matter of being a GEEK or a GURU or any other label suggesting poor socialization and unattractiveness. It's a matter of being a socially responsible consumer.
The last time I was at Yahoo Headquarters in Sunnyvale, I was part of a picket by the California Nurses Association and the Service Employees International Union. Inside, Governor Ahnold Gropinator was the guest of honor at a periodic ceremony where rich white and Asian men congratulate each other for validating their social darwinism while Yahoo's salarymen applaud. CNA and SEIU picket the Governator whereever they can, and at least three local GP activists showed up at noon on a weekday.
I wished I'd made a handbill about Yahoo's central role in the Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud gang, but I hadn't thought of it. That connection may be unknown to progressives but some of us have heard that Yahoo executive management is part of the GOP fundraising network in California and nationwide.
The Internet has turned from an information superhighway to a road of ruin for victims of cyber fraud. Many of the online scams regulators see today are merely new versions of old offline schemes.