My Documents Held To Ransom
May 31, 2006
Not exactly my own person documents, but this woman had her ‘My Documents’ folder held to ransom in an attack quickly becoming known as ‘Ransomware’. Hackers raided her computer in the UK and encrypted her My Documents folder in Windows containing coursework, photographs, personal letters and more.
From the BBC…
A message had appeared on her computer screen telling her she had contracted an unnamed virus.
It is thought the message was part of the scam and she inadvertently downloaded it.
The virus is known as Archiveus and victims are told to buy pharmaceutical drugs from an internet chemist thought to be based in Russia.
Buying drugs from an online pharmacy was going to give her access to the 30 character password she needed to decrypt her files.
You have been warned! Read on at the beeb…
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Nikon Climb Aboard The Flickr Train
May 31, 2006
Via Steve Rubel’s blog it seems that Nikon have struck up a partnership with Flickr which will see the introduction (for the first time ever) of graphical contextual ads on Flickr by a third party company in relation to their photographs. What it means for users is that they’re going to wind up with a small Nikon logo beside photos they’ve snapped using Nikon gear.
As a Nikon photographer (I’ve been shooting Nikon for years both film and digital) I can’t say that I would mind at all to have a Nikon logo appear along side my photos, or have my work appear in a planned Nikon-only gallery on Flickr. Its something about photographers, liking to show off the gear they shoot with. Mainstream you’re either a Nikon user or a Canon user (out of the main players), so it will be interesting to see if Canon decide to make any similar moves. Think Google would buy Canon and co-brand Google Images?
Music For A Podsafe Generation
May 30, 2006
Back on my podcasting buzz for the day, Bernie Goldbach has posted an excellent list of podsafe music resources featuring a great list of Creative Commons-licensed works for inclusion in your podcasting developments.
The more and more I look into all the resources that are available, the more excited I get about the planned KKM series kicking off (hopefully) over the summer.
IIA - Congress Podcast Released
May 30, 2006
From people I’ve been talking to, the IIA’s Annual Congress was fantastic, and the IIA with Doop Design have released a podcast of the entire congress with mp3 links listed below. You can catch further details on the podcast release here.
- Colm Lyon, IIA Chairman.s Introduction
- David Jesse eBay Using eBay to sell online
- Peter Cobley, Yahoo! Search Marketing
- John Herlihy, Google, A New Marketing Paradigm
- Mark Charkin, MSN, The Changing Consumer and Microsoft - what this means to you
- Colm Lyon, Realex Payments - An Opportunity to Thank You
- Extensive Q&A with full panel
- Interview with Sean Foley microsoft & vox pop
- Des Kenny, Kennys, Moving an entire business online
- Jim Scheinmann, Bebo, Engagement Marketing on Bebo.com
Been looking forward to this….
305 And Counting….
May 30, 2006
Keith’s domain auction has hit €305 and there’s still a good 5 days left on the auction. Think that should pay for his dinner when attending the IT@Cork Web 2.0 (ooooooh did I say that?) conference…. 
2.0 Sides To Every Story
May 29, 2006
Google News picked it up straight out of Ireland’s Silicon Republic as John Kennedy writes how there’s 2.0 sides to every story, following on from the IT@Cork vs O’Reilly debate starting breaking last week….
Genius title!
Gotta Love O2
May 27, 2006
Update: Managed to get my phone book back at 23:16. I think I should have sent messages to those people just to say I. In particular, the number that was entered simply as “myself”. Now, wouldn’t that person get a shock!
—
I’ve got no idea who Sharon, Cowhey, Tomas Z and M. Sexton are but they’re a few of the entries in the O2 phonebook seemingly tied into my account.
Mistaken identity? Have I logged in to someone elses account? It has my name, has the right balance for my phone, but everything else has disappeared and I’ve got loads of new people in my phone book - and none of my original entries.
For the love of God O2….. sort it out! How long should it take an organisation that big, with vasts amounts of daily traffic, subscriber numbers in the millions, to sort out their website? I’ve no patience this weekend….
Blogging The World Cup
May 26, 2006
//Off-topic
While the tech world gets around the idea of Yahoo jumping into bed with eBay and Google getting all close with Dell, I’ll be adding to the blog collection for the next couple of weeks, keeping track of the world cup.
With the NFL in its off season since February and the draft come and gone I’ve a need to keep going with sport and have just launched World Cup Access, tracking the latest news and events in the run up to and throughout the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
It’s Wordpress with my own conventional twist and theme, which I may release once the 9th of July closes… or at least port it to another of my blogs 
Anyway, if you’re interested, don’t be afraid to check it out. Maybe its just that 24, Prison Break, Scrubs, The Sopranos (this weekend), Lost and Desperate Housewives have all finished…. or maybe its just for the love of the game.
//End Off-topic
Data Retention Abuse? Phone Records Leaked?
May 25, 2006
Digital Rights Ireland has an interesting article on the Gardai leaking confidential mobile phone records to the press following on from the recent hunger strike in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin…
Yahoo, eBay stop just short of merger
May 25, 2006
Huge news out of Silicon Valley, with rumblings during the week of a massive move between some of the major players, its out in the open that Yahoo and eBay have formed a “far-reaching alliance” in a move designed to boost their stance amid competition from Google and Microsoft.
Yahoo will be the exclusive provider of graphical, branded advertising throughout eBay’s auction site while Paypal will be integrated to all of Yahoo’s premium and financial services. Bad news for Microsoft who had been looking to pull either Yahoo or eBay on board to rival Google.
