Stupid Phishers

I got an email at work today, sent to our generic “security” address, telling me that I need to update my security information at Barclays Bank.

This is funny for so many reasons.

In the first place, that email address doesn’t belong to any one person. Then there is the fact that it’s a bank in the UK and I am in the US.

Then we move on to the contents of the page. It includes a URL that looks like this: https://update.barclays.co.uk/olb/p/LoginMember.do (this page doesn’t exist) but actually takes you to this page: http://www.voodoocult.net/forum/2pages_1_%5b1%5d.barclays.co.uk/
2pages.barclays.co.uk/olb/p/LoginMember.do/

There are so many things wrong with this phishing page.

The site is not using SSL.

They don’t even try to hide the fact the URL is wrong.

On the top of the page is a big warning about scammers and a link to the real Barclays page about how to avoid being scammed – where the first thing they warn you about are phishing emails! It says:

Ignore emails claiming to be from Barclays that ask you to follow links to a site to confirm your Online Banking security and membership details.

And then the form to collect your information doesn’t even check to see if you entered any data. You can just click on the Next buttons and it happily goes to the next page.

Hahahaha. All I can do is laugh.

More DRM Goodness

Walt Mossburg of the Wall Street Journal has a very good column about DRM.

In my view, both sides have a point, but the real issue isn’t DRM itself — it’s the manner in which DRM is used by copyright holders. Companies have a right to protect their property, and DRM is one means to do so. But treating all consumers as potential criminals by using DRM to overly limit their activities is just plain wrong.

Science Fiction Predicts the Future, Again

Transparent Aluminum from Star Trek IV is now real.

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s materials and manufacturing directorate is testing aluminum oxynitride — ALONtm — as a replacement for the traditional multi-layered glass transparencies now used in existing ground and air armored vehicles.

Read the rest here.