Google accounts breached

Over 1 million Google accounts breached by Android malware.
There are some folks I know who really can’t understand why I stick with Apple over Android. The above issue is a big one. Doing what we do, security is a major consideration. I don’t need my accounts, or other accounts I have access to, compromised. It’s not that Apple is 100% compromise proof, but there are more checks and balances in the pipeline.
On the deliverability front, I had a recent interaction with someone from iCloud. This is a colleague I’ve worked with for years now, following him through multiple job changes. A client was having some delivery issues with a shared IP, so I was asking if he could send me some data to help track down the problem customer. I have a habit of asking for subject lines when I’m trying to get data. It’s usually enough for an ESP to track down the problem, and they’re not a way for folks to track down spamtraps or recipients. The answer I got back was sorry, they couldn’t give me any information at all, even something minor like a subject line.
Apple takes user privacy seriously and are doing a lot to protect their users. Does that mean I spend too much money on hardware I could buy cheaper? Perhaps. But, I’ll pay a little more to work with a company that puts privacy at the center of their product suite.

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Internet security is national security?

This popped up on my FB feed yesterday.
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What say you? Do we need to create a major effort to improve online security? What challenges do you see to making it work?
Edit: After I published this, I found an article stating that 3.7 million people had their personal health information compromised in a recent attack.

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Security issues affect us all

I’ve been talking about security more on the blog. A lot of that is because the security issues are directly affecting many senders. The biggest effect recently has been on companies ending up on the SBL because their signup forms were the target of a subscription attack. But there are other things affecting online spaces that are security related. Right now not much of it is affecting email senders, but it’s good to be aware of.
DDOS attacks
There has been an increase in DDOS attacks against different companies and network. Some of the online game sites have been targeted including EA, Blizzard and others. A group called PoodleCorp is claiming responsibility for those attacks.
Another set of DDOS attacks hit Brian Krebs’ website this week. The site stayed up, but Akamai has told Brian they can no longer host his website. His website is down for now and the foreseeable future.
While this activity doesn’t affect marketers directly, it does tell us that there is active development happening on the less legal side of the internet. The volumes of the recent attacks have sent records. They’re also changing in scope and including new kinds of traffic in an effort to knock sites offline. Even more concerning, they appear to be systematically attempting to discover defenses in order to attack the internet as a whole.
Increase in Spam
Spam has been on the decrease over the last few years. Many of us were treating it as a mostly-solved problem. But a new report from Cisco Talos shows that trend is reversing and spam levels are increasing. Current levels are approaching those last seen more than 5 years ago. Cisco Talos has used a number of different sources of data, all showing an increase in spam directly and indirectly.

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Yahoo collaborating with US intelligence agencies

Today it was revealed that Yahoo has been scanning people’s email for the federal government.

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