Better… much better…   Poll results

Kraft have bowed to public pressure, and have scrapped the (dare I say loathed) Vegemite name “iSnack 2.0”. And, they have decided that the public will choose the new name, by voting on it. Here is the URL if you’re so inclined: http://www.ys2.net.au/surveys/9/y90926.asp There are six names to choose from, and sadly you will have to rate them from your first choice, to your last choice.  The choices are: Vegemite Cheesybite, Vegemite Vegemate, Vegemite Snackmate, Vegemite Smooth, Vegemite Vegemild

    I received an email today advising me that I have been awarded Microsoft MVP status for the 11th time. Unlike my previous 10 awards, this time I have been awarded Microsoft MVP under the specialty “Consumer Security: Training” instead of as an Internet Explorer MVP.  I think that is perfectly appropriate; for years I have focused on Consumer Security from the perspective of an Internet Explorer user, but in recent years my focus has moved to studying malvertizing – what it is,

  … or maybe a lawsuit by the makers of “ iSnack Cyber Chips ” or the “ iSnack Energy Bar ”. Yes, Kraft really did choose to name their new Vegemite “ iSnack 2.0 ” .  The name was “invented” (and I use that term very loosely) by Dean Robbins, a 27 year old West Australian and graphic and web designer. What were Kraft thinking… So far, the responses I am seeing are overwhelmingly negative, and you can add me to the list of critics.

  Regular readers will recognize the domains t.banner09092.com and blackwater-cuprumworks.net – they were the domains used to attempt infection of computers via various security exploits: http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2009/09/12/1722754.aspx Luckily, the domain blackwater-cuprumworks.net is not responding at the moment. extrabanner.com ICANN Registrar: Godaddy.com, Inc Created 30 July 2009 NS47.DOMAINCONTROL.COM NS48.DOMAINCONTROL.COM IP: 68.178.232.100 - Arizona, Scottsdale,

  “ SOS issued for original ABBA jumpsuit VICTORIA Police have issued an SOS to help find a white jumpsuit originally worn by ABBA songstress Agnetha Faltskog. The jumpsuit, which Agnetha is pictured wearing on the cover of the Swedish pop group's fourth album, Arrival, is believed to have been taken from a Melbourne house and sold at a garage sale. The jumpsuit's owner had leased out the Healesville home with the 1970s jumpsuit still stored in the shed. Police believe the figure-hugging

It has been all over the popular press – the New York Times web site had been tricked into accepting a malvertizement that was hijacking some visitors to that site and dumping them at a web site touting fake security software.  And, in a move that is kind of unusual, the New York Times web site displayed a warning about the malvertizement. It just so happens that over on yort.com (author: Troy Davis) there is a screenshot demonstrating how the hijack was triggered:   New York Times incident

  It has been implicated in the facilitation of malvertizing that attempts to infect computers via PDF exploit The way it works is as follows: ad.trendbanner.com uses document.write to load the JS content at banner.pushbanner769.info banner.pushbanner769.info displays an advertisement, but also loads content from content from t.banner08092.com. t.banner08092.com simply redirects to blackwater-cuprumworks.net blackwater-cuprumworks.net includes a javascript (valla.js) which loads content from

I have received information that kennedales.com has been implicated in a malvertizing incident.  I noted in my last blog post that kennedales.com shares IP address with two other domains that have already been caught facilitating malvertizing but at that time had not received intelligence indicating that kennedales.com was also involved. Now we know that it is.

Seen distributing malvertizing at starnewsonline.com: http://forums.starnewsonline.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6431032365/m/7121097019/r/9841029019 And collegehumor.com: http://www.facebook.co.za/CollegeHumor And tigerdroppings.com: http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/messagetopic.asp?p=14780012&pg=1 And basilmarket.com (page doesn't load, but you can find it in Google cache): http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/1184277/2   newadsresults.com ICANN Registrar: BIZCN.COM, INC. Created 21 July 2009