Some of the interesting technology stories around.
Security: Thumb sucking, slurping, snarfing, Excuse me? Sounds like a kid show, but security experts are using better names to make these hacks, data theft and more in the publics mind.
Phisher Says He Makes a Fortune Using Re-used Passwords What caught me was the phisher’s acknowledgment that he uses passwords stolen from social networking sites to break into e-mail accounts, where he then searches for financial account details. He says he can make $3-$4,000 a day selling this information. Interview is here.
Google buys a start-up once every few days, or around one a week “Google buys a start-up once every few days, or around one a week, Schmidt estimated” comes from a eWeeek article recapping a Google reporter briefing earlier this week. One of the things I have learned from being on the Fortune 100 side is that large amounts of cash in reserve typically don’t remain in reserve. Whether its stock buyback, capital expansion or acquisitions, the cash must go.
Yahoo To Finally Upgrade MyBlogLog Techcrunch talks about MyBloglog being upgraded, their past problems and are hoping it is looking up. “MyBlogLog, the ubiquitous blog widget that shows pictures of recent visitors to a site, was one of the “instant” success stories of 2006 – Yahoo acquired the company before most people even had a chance to hear about it. Like many blogs, we had the MyBlogLog widget on TechCrunch for months. We eventually removed it due to performance issues (it slowed down the site on a couple of occasions) and this incredible amount of spam that started to appear.”
Microsoft takes on the free world Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users. Users like you, maybe. Fortune’s Roger Parloff reports.
Joost Invitations: 2000+ Sent I?m happy to say Mashable has distributed thousands of Joost invitations over the past 2 weeks – I?m guessing in excess of 2000, although I haven?t done a manual count for obvious reasons. Praises be to those readers who reciprocated by inviting others, and curses upon those who didn?t. They still have a Joost invite thread here, but if you can’t get one, leave a comment here and I will send you one, I still have several hundred left.
