McColo Corp, a web hosting company believed to be responsible for about 75 percent of the world’s spam, was shut down two weeks ago. Brian Krebs of the Washington Post initially broke the story, as posted on CNET News.

After McColo’s shutdown on November 11th, I started keeping an eye on the amount of spam quarantined by my spam filter and it did in fact mirror the overall 80 percent decrease. But while part of me was rejoicing, another part was skeptical because spammers are tenacious. I knew it wouldn’t be long before they found alternate hosting.

As expected, spammers have apparently found new hosting to continue their evil ways. My quarantined numbers have risen over the last couple of days, which reflects a nationwide trend, again reported on CNET News.

The CNET article further explains how McColo hosting was being used to send spam and also some theories on how they’re moving to other companies, some outside the U.S. Read more.

My celebration may have been short-lived, but I’m crediting this as a huge win for the good guys. Hopefully, we’ll experience additional similar victories on the road to winning the war against spammers.

Live and swear by Google? Have we got some news for you! The proud owner of the world’s largest search engine has officially introduced the beta version of a brand new open source browser, calling it Chrome. And it’s definitely worth taking a look at.

First, it’s fast. Thanks to Google’s new, high-performance JavaScript engine, even complex web pages and applications (like videos and games) execute quickly. Plus, it’s stable. Google designed Chrome to keep the process on each tab open in your browser working exclusive of the others. This means that your entire browser won’t crash just because something on another tab did.

Whenever you open a new tab, you’ll conveniently see the websites you visit most often. Like using Gmail? Just click on the image and Chrome will take you there. You can also see and easily access your recent searches and bookmarks. For even more convenience, Chrome lets you conduct searches and bookmark pages right in the address bar. And you can click on the colorful, little Chrome icon to check the security of the site you’re on.

Speaking of security, Chrome has got you covered. Say your bank’s site is open on one tab, but you’ve encountered a rogue site on another tab. Because each tab is independent, you don’t have to worry about the site stealing your bank information. Also, if Chrome thinks you may be entering an unsafe site, it will display the message, “Error Messages and Alerts: ‘This is probably not the site you are looking for!’

With Chrome, Google set out to build “not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications.” Want to check it out? If you’re a Windows user, learn more about Chrome and download it here: http://www.google.com/chrome. Mac and Linux users, hang tight. Google says your crack at Chrome is on its way.

Wikipedia defines Phishing as “the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.” Definitely a mouthful. Let me explain using a real-life example.

I recently received an email seemingly from Google AdWords. I advertise the services of Dogpaw Studio on Google’s ad network to increase our bottom line. The “From” address was reactivation@google.com, so it seemed real at first glance. Then I read the email’s content.

It basically told me that their attempt to charge our company credit card for our monthly balance failed and that our advertising campaign had been suspended. Obviously, I checked online and found that our campaign was still active. Getting me to click on a link in the malicious email to update our primary payment information was a criminal attempt to obtain our credit card and billing information.

Just for fun, I clicked on the link in the email and my ever-vigilant Firefox 3.0 browser confirmed it was fake with this nice message:

Reported Web Forgery!
This web site at www.adwords.google.com.sessicv.cn has been reported as a web forgery and has been blocked based on your security preferences.

Web forgeries are designed to trick you into revealing personal or financial information by imitating sources you may trust.

Entering any information on this web page may result in identity theft or other fraud.

On this screen, I could also conveniently click on a button to find out more about why the site was blocked. To learn more about Phishing, visit this page on the Mozilla Firefox website.

Here are a few ways to avoid getting caught:

• Instead of using the URL contained within the email, call your actual company to ask them if the email is real or fake. At the very least, visit the correct URL, log in as usual, and check for any notices resembling the email’s content.
• Look carefully at the URL in the email. This was the one in mine: http://adwords.google.com/select. Notice that it begins with “http://”. This shows me that it’s not even a secure URL. Responsible organizations will use URLs starting with “https://”. Notice the “s” for “secure,” signifying that all information will be encrypted in transit to this website. You can also compare the URL in the email to the one in your bookmark.
• Download and use internet web browsers that protect you from entering suspicious sites. I primarily use Firefox 3.0, which helps protect me from suspicious websites by displaying messages like the example above. Read more about how Mozilla Firefox web browser handles Phishing here.

Don’t get caught. Be smart!

How many of you use Firefox 2.0? Did you even know that Firefox 3.0 existed? Version 3.0 debuted in mid-June.

Mozilla, the developers of Firefox, plan two more updates to 2.0 before it’s retired at the end of 2008.

Since one of main purposes of browser updates is to patch security holes, I highly recommend that you switch to Firefox 3.0 today. It’s available in over 50 languages for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Once 2.0 is EOL’d (end of life), you’ll be more vulnerable online.

Get it here now. It’s a very fast browser with may useful features that will keep you safe online.

In this electronic age, it’s so easy to click a few buttons and send messages to many people. Email is one of those methods. I must admit that I’m an email addict, but let’s remember some basic etiquette when sending emails, shall we?

1. Be courteous in your tone. It’s all too easy to type quickly and forget basic manners that you’d otherwise have when talking to someone in person. Say “please,” “thank you,” and ask for things nicely.
2. Don’t send emails with text in all caps. Lots of text in all caps is very hard to read and oftentimes comes across as “yelling.” Use all caps sparingly.
3. Don’t spread junk mail. Too many people forward emails containing stupid jokes and worthless chain mail. That sort of junk just wastes time when we’re trying to get work done. Yes, email is actually a productive work tool for many. It’s really disappointing when I see people forwarding spam containing attachments that most likely contain viruses.
4. Use “reply all” sparingly. Have you ever received an email from someone complaining about this or that with a billion names in the CC line? You’re allowed to disagree with the sender, but just use “reply” and save all the other recipients in the CC line from listening to your argument with the sender. Better yet, if you want to send something to a huge group, use the BCC field. What’s that? Read the next item (#5).
5. Use the BCC field. As CC stands for “carbon copy,” BCC stands for “blind carbon copy.” Email addresses you include in the BCC field are not shown to the recipients. This approach removes the possibility of a recipient using “reply all,” as warned in item #4. Besides, displaying and sharing email addresses with a huge group of people could be considered a breach of privacy. Not all of the people included in the more typically used CC field want their email addresses made public with a bunch of strangers. Of course, if everyone’s part of a familiar group, then it’s probably okay - there’s a good chance they all have each other’s addresses anyway.
6. Check your spelling. Have enough respect for your recipient and take the necessary steps to check your spelling. Fortunately, most email clients (Outlook, Apple Mail) have a spell checker. While using web mail, browsers such as Firefox have a spell checker built in.

Email is a great tool for communication. I don’t know what I’d do without it.  Let’s keep it useful.