ETD: 783 Legitimate spam?; RFID hurdles; Sasser Fizzles Out as
Search for Culprits Heats Up
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Wed May 5 22:47:35 GMT 2004
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0783 May 6, 2004
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Legitimate spam?
[3] RFID hurdles
[4] Sasser Fizzles Out as Search for Culprits Heats Up
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
I found some interesting material today. It seems that Microsoft has
partnered with IronPort to bring you legitimatized spam. Organized must
pay to send e-mail marketing material. They say it will reduce spam. What
do you think?
RFID suppliers have been experiencing hurdles that may hinder the target
date that WalMart set for implementation. As with a lot of new products or
services, folks aren't seeing this as an opportunity. Rather it is an
expense, which will hurt acceptance. It is just like EDI when it first
came out.
If you got hit with Sasser, we have a fix today. If you didn't get hit
with it, you may be lucky. Experts are saying Sasser is fizzling. Hope
you survived.
Tell us about your business which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?" site. We just updated all those postings that
we were delinquent with the
updates. http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have
a form there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed
this idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't
know anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Legitimate spam?
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Keith Regan wrote in E-Commerce Times...
Microsoft has thrown its considerable clout -- and its 170 million
registered e-mail users -- behind a plan that uses preapproved lists of
mass marketers in an attempt to curtail the flood of spam.
The company said it has signed on with IronPort Systems' so-called Bonded
Sender program, which enables marketers to become "white listed" and
thereby slip past spam filters that otherwise could catch legitimate
messages as well as true spam.
The program has been tested over the past five months, Microsoft said, and
will be one of many tools used to keep spam away from users of Hotmail and
MSN e-mail accounts.
Microsoft's backing is seen as a huge boost for San Bruno, California-based
IronPort, because the effectiveness of white lists depends on marketers'
willingness to go through the vetting process necessary to be included. The
addition of Microsoft's millions of e-mail users to the program makes it
far more likely that legitimate marketers will want to sign up, enabling
their opt-in messages to bypass increasingly rigorous spam filters.
Under IronPort's bonded approach, cleared marketers put up cash bonds that
can be defaulted or deducted against if their messages breach standards of
conduct for legitimate e-mail marketing .
Although white lists are not seen as a cure-all, they can play a role in
helping to curb spam by freeing up spam filters to catch truly unwanted
e-mail, according to Forrester Research analyst Jan Sundgren.
Details at...
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/ebiz/33646.html
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[3] RFID hurdles
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In light of Wal-Mart's recent announcement that it will test electronic
product codes with eight major CG firms in its Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex,
CGT reached out to a handful of major CG companies in order to gauge the
progress of their RFID initiatives. Here's what we found out:
o Sources tell CGT that they are currently experiencing anywhere from 20
percent to 30 percent failure rates on tags. Improvements are needed to
reach Wal-Mart's goal of 100 percent readability of pallet tags through
dock doors and 100 percent readability of case tags on distribution center
conveyor belts.
o Leading CG manufacturers who are currently shipping tagged products have
not yet seen a tangible return for their RFID efforts. To fully embrace
this technology, manufacturers must alter the mindset that RFID investments
are merely a cost of doing business.
o There is a large learning curve for vendors, including more than 45 tag
manufacturers, as they try to overcome RFID challenges such as tag
placement and readability rates.
o Target, whose mandate requires its top suppliers be RFID compliant by
Spring 2005, could potentially be the beneficiary of Wal-Mart's missteps
surrounding RFID.
o Furthermore, CG companies are now considering whether or not they should
push RFID compliance down to their own suppliers.
Obviously these concerns could become major setbacks for manufacturers and
potentially lead Wal-Mart to soften its January 2005 deadline.
http://www.imakenews.com/edgellcgt/e_article000256515.cfm?x=a2PyT9W,a1C5PD6s
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[4] Sasser Fizzles Out as Search for Culprits Heats Up
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In an article in Enterprise Security Today it was reported...
"Sasser seems to have infected roughly the same number of machines as
Blaster. The vulnerabilities they took advantage of were very similar, and
the fact that Sasser rebooted computers is identical to Blaster as well.
Therefore I think the damage is going to be very similar," says Symantec's
Alfred Huger.
Sasser has reached the end of its natural lifecycle and soon will become a
bad memory. Although the mass downloading of firewalls played some part in
defeating it, the worm simply "blacked out," Alfred Huger, senior director
of engineering, Symantec , told NewsFactor.
Whether Sasser or Blaster will take the prize for having inflicted the most
damage still remains to be seen. "It's a question that will be answered
once all of this has calmed down," says Huger. "Sasser seems to have
infected roughly the same number of machines as Blaster. The
vulnerabilities they took advantage of were very similar, and the fact that
Sasser rebooted computers is identical to Blaster as well. Therefore I
think the damage is going to be very similar."
Firewalls Recommended
To combat Sasser, Microsoft recommended enterprises use a firewall to block
incoming traffic on all unused ports, especially port 445, as well as use a
personal firewall, such as Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall for
remote PCs and laptops. Microsoft also recommended installing the MS04-011
security update.
Although Sasser is fading into the sunset, enterprises probably have not
seen the last of this type of worm. "This is something I think we are going
to have with us for some time to come," says Huger.
Details at...
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=23942
If you did get hit with Sasser, the next post tells you how to get rid of it...
+++ [Next Post] +++
How to Remove the 'Sasser' Worm
Here are instructions to follow if you suspect that your computer has been
infected:
1. Disconnect your computer from the Internet.
2. Locate and stop the worm's actions: Press the keys "Ctrl" "Alt" and
"Del" at the same time. That should launch Windows Task Manager. Click on
the "Processes" tab. Look for a file called "aserve.exe" or "*_up.exe". If
one of these files appears, highlight it and click on the "End Process"
button. Click "yes" when it asks for confirmation.
3. Find and delete the worm: Click on the "Start" button in the bottom-left
corner of your screen, then choose "Search". Search your entire computer
(in the field next to the "all files and folders" option) for the following
files: "avserve.exe", and "*_up.exe". Delete any matching files.
4. Enable a firewall: Right-click on the Internet connection icon in the
bottom-right corner of your screen (or wherever the task bar is located).
Click on "open network connections". When a box pops up, right-click on the
connection you use to get online, and select "properties". Then, on the
"Advanced" tab you should see a box underneath the words "Internet
connection firewall". If that box is not checked, check it.
5. Reconnect your computer to the Internet.
6. Visit Microsoft's Windows Update site: go to
windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Let the site scan your computer and apply any
"critical" updates.
7. Check to make sure your computer is disinfected: Visit Microsoft's
Sasser page ( http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/sasser.asp ) on
its Web site and click on the button that reads "Check My PC for
Infection". Follow the instructions provided.
If your computer continues to try to restart:
Click on the "Start" button at the bottom-left corner of your screen, then
choose "Run" from the list of options. Type "cmd.exe" (without the
quotation marks). When a command prompt pops up, type in "shutdown -a"
(again -- without the quotation marks). That should stop the reboot process
and give you enough time to carry out steps two through four.
Cheers,
Tom Fossum
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