While this BLOG site has been operational since mid-February, I was interested to know if sufficient momentum had been generated by the BLOG site to justify an ongoing investment of time and energy into maintaining the site. When Rick & Michelle began searching for DDYT members, they found most had 'spread their wings' moving not only to the far reaches of Australia but also the world. Today there are DDYTers in Asia, Europe and the Americas. We had hoped that the BLOG site could help overcome the tyranny of distance by providing a common forum for the dissemination of information and for members to share life stories with the group.
To help evaluate the effectiveness of this medium, 2 months ago I set up some web monitoring to provide broad statistical information (ie number of visitors; OS used; browsers used; pages viewed; active browsing time; visitors region etc). The feedback indicated that the BLOG site was being regularly accessed and therefore was a worthwhile exercise to maintain the site in the lead-up to the reunion.
One of the statistics that intrigued me was the number of 'unique visitors' and the number of countries that visitors haled from. Clearly there are others outside our circle (inclusive of our family & friends) that have had a passing interest in the DDYT experience.
For those of you that are interested, I have gathered a list of the countries of origin for visitors to our BLOG site. Visitors to the BLOG site have come from 44 different countries or territories. Since I have been maintaining the site, the monitoring was setup to exclude me from the statistics to prevent any distortions.
Below is the list of countries or territories provided in descending order by the total number of visits per country/territory over the last 2 months:
Australia (highest number of visits - 640 visits)
United States
Indonesia
India
United Kingdom
Germany
Canada
Portugal
Spain
Singapore
Malaysia
France
Turkey
Italy
Brazil
Sweden
Hong Kong (highest average time per vist of 19:49 mins/visit)
Belgium
Romania
Chile
Thailand
Taiwan
Vietnam
Austria
Ireland
Pakistan
Greece
Netherlands
Laos (highest average number of pages/visit - 10.0 pages/visit)
Argentina
Japan
Iran
Ukraine
Finland
Ecuador
Kuwait
Mexico
Palestinian Territory
Reunion
Kazakhstan
Algeria
Tanzania
Peru
Panama
Over the next few weeks I will change the visitor's time clock to reflect the time for each city that a visitor has haled from.
Saturday, 21 July 2007
Thursday, 19 July 2007
FYI - The Rise of PDF Spamming
(Not long now before the final computer thingamajigs arrive so I can get back to DDYT stuff)
Have you started to notice the rise of PDF Spamming?
Isn't life being connected to the Internet like living in "interesting times"? So many exciting 'positives' & benefits from this interconnected way of communicating & yet so many new hazards to negotiate. Those intent on malicious endeavours have found a powerful medium with which to dramatically expand their sphere of influence with minimal risk of substantive consequences. The cost of their endeavours are borne by us either directly or indirectly.
Spamming techniques & strategies have evolved over the last decade. Methods for obfuscation; harvesting email addresses; 'hijacking' computers; and content packaging & delivery have become more sophisticated to keep abreast of the detection & defensive counter measures.
Over the last year, image based spamming (embedding messages in GIF and JPEG files) has been the approach du jour however it now appears to be fading in preference for a new method for content packaging. Over the last few months there has been a rapid rise in the use of PDF files for delivering the spamming content. In this first generation of PDF content delivery, it is being used as a very simple delivery for existing spam content and generally is just a quick repackaging of the previous image technique. I'm not aware of the PDF format containing a more sinister payload with this current generation but be vigilant as this may change.
My first encounter with this delivery method slipped under my guard. It came in an email identifying itself as an invoice. I am used to receiving invoices in an electronic method (no surprise that businesses choose to deliver it this way as it is significantly cheaper than the traditional hard copy + postage method). Alarm bells did ring but for a different reason. I was fearing credit card abuse.
"Who's been using my credit card?" I muttered, "Damn that Goldilocks - I always thought that bed-napping, porridge-pinching vagabond would come to no good!!"
Existing security software didn't register any threat when I opened the document (and it may be some time before software defensive strategies take account of this new threat & devise appropriate counter measures) . The document did not contain any malicious payload this time but it now means that there is an additional overhead in dealing with the current threat & the the potential dangers that will arise when a more malicious payload is embedded into it.
For those interested in knowing more, here are further links:
...
Have you started to notice the rise of PDF Spamming?
Isn't life being connected to the Internet like living in "interesting times"? So many exciting 'positives' & benefits from this interconnected way of communicating & yet so many new hazards to negotiate. Those intent on malicious endeavours have found a powerful medium with which to dramatically expand their sphere of influence with minimal risk of substantive consequences. The cost of their endeavours are borne by us either directly or indirectly.
Spamming techniques & strategies have evolved over the last decade. Methods for obfuscation; harvesting email addresses; 'hijacking' computers; and content packaging & delivery have become more sophisticated to keep abreast of the detection & defensive counter measures.
Over the last year, image based spamming (embedding messages in GIF and JPEG files) has been the approach du jour however it now appears to be fading in preference for a new method for content packaging. Over the last few months there has been a rapid rise in the use of PDF files for delivering the spamming content. In this first generation of PDF content delivery, it is being used as a very simple delivery for existing spam content and generally is just a quick repackaging of the previous image technique. I'm not aware of the PDF format containing a more sinister payload with this current generation but be vigilant as this may change.
My first encounter with this delivery method slipped under my guard. It came in an email identifying itself as an invoice. I am used to receiving invoices in an electronic method (no surprise that businesses choose to deliver it this way as it is significantly cheaper than the traditional hard copy + postage method). Alarm bells did ring but for a different reason. I was fearing credit card abuse.
"Who's been using my credit card?" I muttered, "Damn that Goldilocks - I always thought that bed-napping, porridge-pinching vagabond would come to no good!!"
Existing security software didn't register any threat when I opened the document (and it may be some time before software defensive strategies take account of this new threat & devise appropriate counter measures) . The document did not contain any malicious payload this time but it now means that there is an additional overhead in dealing with the current threat & the the potential dangers that will arise when a more malicious payload is embedded into it.
For those interested in knowing more, here are further links:
...
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Beware of small charges on your Credit Card ...
(Yep still padding while waiting for the last of the hardware to arrive so I can be productive again:)
Beware of small charges on your Credit Card ...
Something that you may need to be aware of is the new strategy of scammers to check the validity of stolen credit card details by making small donations via charitable websites. This technique is not aimed at benefiting charities but is merely a strategy to check the usability of the credit card while minimising the risk of being picked up by the banks' fraud detection systems as they are not deemed to be regular transactions.
You should be on the lookout for unauthorised transactions 'fitting the bill' as it could be a pre-cursor to far more serious fraud on your account.
For more information you can click on the following links:
...
Beware of small charges on your Credit Card ...
Something that you may need to be aware of is the new strategy of scammers to check the validity of stolen credit card details by making small donations via charitable websites. This technique is not aimed at benefiting charities but is merely a strategy to check the usability of the credit card while minimising the risk of being picked up by the banks' fraud detection systems as they are not deemed to be regular transactions.
You should be on the lookout for unauthorised transactions 'fitting the bill' as it could be a pre-cursor to far more serious fraud on your account.
For more information you can click on the following links:
...
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