Kidnapped!
http://www.vladville.com/2007/08/responsepoint-visits-vladville.html
I had to laugh a bit at the disclaimer that came with this offer. Okay .. I can understand the "you pay the taxes" part of the offer. The W-9 in the offer was the clue that they were serious about letting the Internal Revenue Service know that I got this. And I can understand the "hold harmless" clauses but what caught my eye.. is VOIP worth kidnapping?
I just found this funny...if I get kidnapped don't call Microsoft.... and I obviously need to do my own estate planning.
I agree and hold Microsoft together with their respective directors, officers, employees, agents, licensees and assigns harmless against all and any liability for personal injury, death, hijacking, kidnapping or other injury or accident beyond their control and resulting from acceptance and utilization of the gift / prize sponsored in the Promotion. I also acknowledge that Microsoft has not arranged for and does not carry an insurance of any kind for my benefit or that of my heirs, executors and administrators relative to my use of the gift / prize; and that I am solely responsible for obtaining and paying for any life, travel, accident, property or other insurance should I desire it.
In more serious news at BlackHat they discussed VOIP threats.... I should go read that PDF...wonder if it includes kidnapping?
"We also directed members to three articles highlighting some of the
topics discussed at the Black Hat conference. The first article, titled
“Researchers flag VoIP exploits at Black Hat”,(1) notes that researchers
presented ways to compromise VoIP-based phone systems based on the H.323
and Inter Asterisk eXchange protocols. We recommend reviewing the
X-Force report titled “Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) —
Transforming Business, Inviting Attack” (PDF) (2)to obtain information
on what a VoIP solution should provide and how to mitigate risk. The
second article describes how a researcher has found vulnerabilities in
popular media players that could allow an attacker to compromise
vulnerable systems. (3)The third article(4) we would like to highlight
details a presentation given which described how many companies fail to
properly protect their corporate intranets – leaving them vulnerable to
attack."
(1) http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9028860&intsrc=news_ts_head
(2) http://documents.iss.net/ThreatIQ/ISS_XFTIQ_Q105.pdf
(3) http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/researcher-finds-serious-security-flaws-in-media-players/2007/08/03/1185648101141.html
(4) http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/01/black-hat-intranet-security_1.html
Read the complete post at http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2007/08/06/kidnapped.aspx