Its not much, but we did get a mention in the Boston Globe…

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2009/04/11/filters_getting_better_at_blocking_spam/?page=2

Other companies, like Sendio Inc. in Irvine, Calif., and Spam Arrest LLC of Seattle, use a “challenge-response” technique. Send an e-mail to a challenge-response user and you’ll get an automated reply, asking you to type in some words or numbers. This will prove your e-mail came from a human being and not a spam-spewing computer. If you send the correct reply, all your future messages are delivered immediately, but spam messages can’t get through.

For the record… Sendio’s sender address verification technology (SAV), also know generically as challenge response, DOES NOT require anyone to “…type in some words or numbers.” Our technology requires a simple “REPLY & SEND.” and ONLY in the case where the sender is completely unknown to the intended recipient. For example, anyone I send an e-mail to is automatically added to my personal accept-list, thus, is NEVER subjected to the address verification process.

Fear is used, universally, as a means to control people. Governments use it. Large businesses use it. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that “cyber bad guys” us it. Why do they use fear… Because it is is effective!

I often ask myself who comes up with terms like “scareware?” Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Scareware” is, at its core, a Trojan horse. In most cases, the “malicious security software” that plagues computers around the world is willingly installed by the victims themselves. The purveyors of these threats, in many cases, get their victims to pay for the software under the guise that it is, itself, software designed to protect the user.

The easiest and best way for people to avoid falling victim to these types of attacks/threats is to use common sense.

• Don’t install software unless you can verify its  source is legitimate and reputable.
• Before installing any new software on your computer,  make sure your anti-virus software is enabled and its definitions are  up-to-date.
• Whatever you do, don’t disable your anti-virus  software. No legitimate software should ever require such an action.
• Finally, before installing any new software, make sure  your important files have been backed-up to a location off your  computer.

In the end, even people who follow all the best security practices sometimes still get hurt by malicious software. However, by following the 4 steps mentioned above, your risk of getting burned is greatly reduced, and even if you do get burned, at least your will not loose your data.

Spam in the Neighborhood
http://securitywatch.eweek.com/spam/spam_in_the_neighborhood.html

“Among others, experts at messaging security vendor Sendio have called out the recent trend toward local spam campaigns. In a recent research summary, the company’s CTO, Tal Golan, highlighted the use of methods including the spoofing of local news events, and regional news portal domains, to convince people to click on the (frequently malware-infected) URLs that spammers are trying to pawn off on them.”