As many of you may have already heard from the multiple emails you may have received; Epsilon, one of the world’s largest email marketing services company, had an emailing list hacked last week. 50 of their 2,500 affected clients include 1-800-Flowers, AbeBooks, Air Miles, Ameriprise Financial, Barclays Bank, Beachbody, bebe stores, Best Buy, Brookstone, Capitol One, City Market, Citi, Dillons, Disney, Destinations, Eileen Fisher, Ethan Allen, Food 4 Less, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Hilton Honors Program, Home Shopping Network, Jay C, JPMorgan Chase, King Soopers, Kroger, Lacoste, LL Bean Visa Card, Marriott Rewards, McKinsey & Company, MoneyGram, New York & Company, QFC, Ralphs, Red Roof Inn, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, Robert Half, Target, The College Board, TD Ameritrade, TiVo, US Bank, and Walgreens. So what does this mean for you? The information obtained includes email addresses and full names… NOT credit card numbers or other personal information. Never the less, this is a huge problem and you should take warning… We will likely see a sharp rise in spear phishing, that is to say, targeted email attacks. The easiest way to protect your self is NEVER to click on links in emails, even if it looks authentic. If you receive a email from any of the above companies asking for any personal information, delete it immediately! If there is a link to update information, don’t click it… instead, go to the companies website directly. Links in these emails will likely lead to fake sites that are designed to look real. We need to remember to be vigilant against email attracts and NEVER click on links in email!

UPDATE: Shortly after I started working on this post it was discovered that Epsilon knew about the vulnerability that led to this hack for four months… Good job getting right on this Epsilon, now we the consumers are the ones to pay for your laziness!

Many people have switched to texting as there standard form of communication of the cell networks. All of the major cell phone carriers over charge grossly for there texting plans. For example lets say the average person sends 400 text messages a month and the average size is 140 bytes, 400 x 140 is 56,000 bytes, or about 5.5 Kilobyte. The average price for data is about 20 cents per kilobyte which would bring our monthly total for 400 messages to $1.10. Now take the same 400 messages and multiply that by the cost per text massage and you come to about $60.

What have we learned? By the carriers math it costs about $1.10 for 400 messages but they charge us $60. Now you may ask where the free part comes in… If we switch to a data plan while not free, we could still send text massages as data (which is what they are in the first place). To achieve this, simply send these messages as email.

For AT&T users sms is phonenumber@txt.att.net and mms is phonenumber@mms.att.net
For Verizon users sms is phonenumber@vtext.com and mms is phonenumber@vzwpix.com
For Sprint users sms and mms is phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
For T-Mobile users sms and mms is phonenumber@tmomail.net

I’m a little boy with glasses, the one they call a geek; a little girl who never smiles cause I’ve got braces on my teeth. I’m that kid on every playground who is always chosen last; you don’t have to be my friend, but is it too much to ask: don’t laugh at me, don’t call me names, don’t get your pleasure from my pain! In the eyes of God we’re all the same.

Attention all Facebook friends and family, this is just a reminder that there has been a re surge in the Facebook exploit, Koobface. Koobface is a nasty worm that’s being spread on social networks like Facebook; however, you can get it without being a member of Facebook. What happens is you will get a message that appears to be form one of your friends, asking you to take a look at a “funny video” or a “video of you”. You would click on the link that would take you to a YouTube like site to see the video. Upon arrival to this fake YouTube site you will be instructed to install an update to your player, thus installing a backdoor Trojan on your computer. Whatever you do, never click on links that you are not familiar with, and never install software unless it comes directly from a vender’s site. If you have received a similar message from a friend on Facebook, chances are they have been infected by the Koobface worm.

This should go without saying, NEVER click links from people you don’t know, and NEVER install software from sites that are unfamiliar!

Also, I have been seeing a serge in the Anti-Virus 2009 worm. If you came across a site that pops up a window that says that you have been infected with malware, NEVER download the software that they say will remove it. These pop-ups are fake and are trying to get you to download a Trojan!

Be safe and responsible out there, don’t contribute to the problem!