Spam

One of the world’s largest social networks, Tagged.com, has been accused of spamming by using the email address books of its members without permission to send misleading marketing messages.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo believes that Tagged.com had taken â€œthe address books and identities of millions of peopleâ€ who had thus been â€œforced into the embarrassing position of having to apologize to all their e-mail contacts.â€

Tagged’s CEO Greg Tseng responded by saying that the social network only uses the same practises employed by many other services: that of making it very clear that members can automatically invite friends via email but that it’s completely opt-in. [Read more…]

Originally posted on July 13, 2009 @ 6:50 am

Squiggly letters and jagged numbers might have already overstayed their welcome on the Web.Â These annoying yet necessary human verification tests, which attempt to keep our personal information safe and blogs free of junk, have been defeated.

According to Websense, the security firm that has identified the hacking, warns that a computer was able to beat the system and proceed to create multiple Hotmail accounts in order to disseminate spam.

Similar attacks have recently occurred against Microsoft’s Live Mail accounts and Google’s Gmail and Blogger services.

Ferris Research, an analyst firm specializing in messaging and collaboration, estimates that spam (and preventative measures) cost the U.S. economy $42 billion annually.

Computers are looking more and more human everyday.Â Beware.