Software Development Company Almost Destroyed By Email Spam
Hit by more than 7.5 million spam e-mails in a single day, the Melbourne-based Aged Care Software Group, watched in horror as the onslaught of spam crashed its Web server and almost put the company out of business.
This was just one disaster associated with its e-mail system, according to the company's managing director, Ken Wragg.
"We were having all sorts of trouble with our e-mail at this stage. We weren't getting any e-mail through in the end," he said.
"It was a matter of fix it or go out of business."
A software provider to the aged care sector, the company has 25 years experience developing systems for around 500 clients across Australia.
Wragg said the company has spent more than two decades building its reputation only to see it almost destroyed by spam.
"Aged care is a small industry - everyone knows everyone and if you're not delivering it gets around by word of mouth," he said.
The Aged Care Software Group has always hosted its own Web server but spam was crashing the system and Internet link daily.
Wragg said legitimate e-mail wasn't getting through so the company couldn't communicate with customers.
"A lot of our support requests and sales requests come through e-mail. If you're not getting support requests in this game, you're dead," he said.
The company moved its server offsite hoping to solve the problem but the spam nightmare continued.
Wragg said the company was still receiving 200 spam e-mails a day even though a spam filter had been installed.
"It was driving me nuts. I think every spammer on the planet had our details. It was crazy," he added.
The massive spam assault wasn't just causing frustration but costing the business money. In fact, download costs were spiralling.
Despite changing its Internet plans several times to try and overcome the problem, it was costing an extra $400 a month in excess download charges.
"We suffered two hacking attempts that, if successful, could have been catastrophic for the business," Wragg explained.
"We are a software development company with all our source code on the servers."
Wragg had reached a point where he believed his problems couldn't get any worse when his e-mail connection began to fail.
For six weeks, he said the company received virtually no e-mail. Then it was hit by more than seven e-mails in a single day.
Basics of Hacking
Any computer user can become a hacker within a couple of hours. There are hacking tools, such as IntelliTamper 2.07, Trojan horse, Backdoor.IRC.ColdLife.30, John The Ripper 1.0, NMap Win 1.2.12, etc. along with instructions, available for free in the internet. But remember, the path to become a certified ethical hacker isn't easy. The act of computer hacking started out innocently and was basically a method of trying to figure out how systems worked. Today there are three categories of hackers white, grey, and black. White hat hackers are cyber heroes who use their knowledge for constructive purposes, and they are well paid for their talents. Grey hackers, though harmful, are just proud peacocks. Black hat hackers also known as crackers are cyber criminals.
Targets of hackers
Although millions of computers operate without adequate security, government agencies and big companies are the preferred targets of hackers. Almost 80% of the cyber crimes are hurled on the login pages, shopping carts, dynamic content etc. Black hat hackers use a great variety of software security holes to befool even the general internet users by tricking them into disclosing their financial information and other secrets. Of late, mobile phone hacking, email hacking, credit card hacking, password hacking, and Google hacking have become very common.
Prevent hacking
As a preventive measure you can; a) update your operating system and your web browser, b) install firewalls, c) install antivirus programs, and d) install the anti-spyware programs.
St.Patricks Day
What did St Patrick do to help Ireland?
He allegedly banned snakes from the island.
Though post-glacial Ireland never actually had snakes; one suggestion is that snakes referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids of that time and place.
Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a 3-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian belief of 'three divine persons in the one God'
St Patrick’s Day Parade today
Downtown will be a sea of green today as the annual Kansas City St. Patrick’s Day Parade gets under way at 11 a.m.
The parade will go along Grand Boulevard from Pershing Road to Truman Road south of the highway loop. If you can’t be there, you can watch it live on KMBC-TV Channel 9.
At 9 a.m., Main Street will be closed between 20th and 27th streets. Parts of Pershing Road and McGee Street will be closed at 9 a.m. too.
At 10 a.m., the parade route portion of Grand Boulevard will be closed.
Millions of Canadians using tax software and becoming their own accountants
Millions of Canadians are using software programs and becoming their own accountants when it comes to their taxes.
Software programs have been updated to take into account recent changes announced in the last federal budget, such as pension income splitting for seniors, children's fitness credits and reduced income tax rates.
More than 4.1 million Canadians filed their taxes through the Canada Revenue Agency's Netfile for the 2006 tax year.
Another roughly 8.8 million Canadians filed online through tax professionals for 2006.
That means for the 2006 tax year, the Canada Revenue Agency received just more than 50 per cent of its returns electronically, said spokesman Serge Paradis.
Tech analyst Andy Walker said easy-to-use software helps makes the difference.
"If you look at the new crop of tax software this year, it's very, very clever," Walker said.
"It asks you in plain language all of the questions you want to be asked and baring a supremely compex thing where you aren't sure which way to answer, it's going to get the job done for you."
"The reality is that software takes the complex and makes it simple. Even the professionals are going to use it," said Walker, a technology author who also has a tech advice website called Cyberwalker.com.
For those who want to do their own taxes, QuickTax now lists all possible deductions from A to Z in plain, everyday language.
"So if you're wondering whether you can claim your dentures, for example, as a medical expense you don't necessarily know that those are called medical expenses but you know that they are dentures," said QuickTax's Cameron Moore.
"You find it in this list and it tells you that you can claim it as a medical expense," Moore said.
"People don't necessarily know what they can claim and what they can't and by having this list in layman's terms they can immediately find that," he said, adding the list will be updated annually.
UFile's Joanne Birtch says that tax software calculates the best refund possible, eliminating guesswork and possibly faulty math.
"It's a refund analyzer that looks at all of the amounts you have put in to ensure that your family as a whole is paying the least amount of tax possible and getting back the best refund," said Birtch of Dr. Tax, software makers of Ufile.
Birtch said Ufile will also do an "automatic optimal split" for seniors who want to do pension income splitting.
"Ufile will provide an optimal split right from the get go," she said.
However, QuickTax's program is slightly different when it comes to splitting pension income.
"Once you've entered your pension income then it will actually calculate it and tell the maximum amount you are allowed to split, then it's up to the taxpayer to decide how much they want to split," Moore said.
Chartered accountant Charles Russell said his firm uses Efile exclusively and he perhaps doesn't see about 10 per cent of his clients, who upload their information to him.
"That 10 per cent last year we think it might get to 30 per cent of our clients this year," said Russell, who's based in Mississauga, Ont. "We expect we won't see them in that process anymore. They won't visit us. They will just transfer the data to us."
Efile is an automated service allowing those prepare and file taxes on behalf of others to electronically file to the Canada Revenue Agency via the Internet.
Russell also uses software for tax preparation at his six-person firm, which does estate and corporate work and personal tax returns, some involving investment portfolios.
Walker said sometimes complicated tax cases need both software and human help.
"If you've got a really weird one, then you want to go to an accountant who really understands those wrinkles and uses the software with their brain."
Microsoft promises new software architecture
Ray Ozzie, Bill Gates' successor as chief architect at Microsoft, gave the keynote address at Microsoft's Mix Conference in Las Vegas. Ozzie explained that online advertising will play a crucial role in Microsoft's web strategy. While he did not rule out paid subscriptions for special software services, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect did say that the company would mainly finance its web investments from advertising. This, he said, is one of the main reasons why Microsoft is working so hard to take over Yahoo. He did not, however, wish to comment on the tug-of-war that has resulted from Microsoft's attempt to take over the search engine and media provider.
When he addresses the Mix audience on Thursday, CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to provide more details on such issues, especially now that Yahoo plans to fend off a hostile takeover by restructuring its supervisory board. Yahoo, number two on the online advertising market, is also reported to be negotiating with AOL, Disney, and News Corp. about possible holdings as alternatives. In February, Microsoft offered Yahoo nearly 45 billion dollars, which the company declined.
Ozzie focused more on Microsoft's plans to restructure its software portfolio to get more users to switch to Windows Live and other services. He explained that the entire software portfolio would be redesigned to provide greater symmetry between locally installed software, SaaS architectures, and Web services. Windows Live Workspace, which enables Internet-based access and storage of office documents, is to become the centerpiece for individual users of productivity applications. In contrast, the Sharepoint Server content management system will be provided for corporate users. Since the beginning of the week, Microsoft has been offering a web-based version of SharePoint Server that is not installed on corporate servers, but accessed via the web from Microsoft. Such services were also launched simultaneously for the exchange server e-mail software and the SQL Server database system. These services are reserved for a select group of users as beta versions at the moment.
Ozzie's keynote address climaxed with a demonstration of Silverlight 2 and Internet Explorer 8, both of which are available to all users for downloading as a public beta test. Expression Studio 2, Visual Studio 2008 and ASP.net MVC Preview are available for both of these programs as new developer tools.
IE 8 focuses mainly on interoperability with Firefox and Safari. Judging from what we have seen already, Microsoft seems to have done quite a bit of work. Special functions for the grouping and bookmarking of related websites provide some interesting ways to find bookmarked documents and preview updates of entire groups.
Silverlight 2 has an impressive new zoom function for animated websites and videos. Web developers also have a new set of tools to combine multiple images in one view, from where users can then zoom in on details. There is also a fast rewind and replay function for live videos, which was demonstrated on NBC's website for the Olympics. In a procedure called "adaptive streaming", videos automatically adjust to the conditions of the network connection and the target computer to provide the best playback quality for each user.
Silverlight is already available on mobile operating systems. A representative of Nokia demonstrated Silverlight videos on an S60 Symbian cell phone. Web developers can thus write software for PCs and mobile systems in the same programming environment.