At 5:46AM the morning of May 19, 2010 I received an email from a client’s Gmail address (the address used in from/senders). The contents of the email tipped me off that it was probably the result of an earlier Gmail phishing attack (and that my client was not in fact shopping at snnsn.com).

I did a little research and did note that Google was the victim of at least 2 well publicized phishing attacks in 2009:

One in October:

• Google confirms Gmail phishing attack

And another Phishing attack earlier in the year in February:

• Gmail phishing attack hits on heels of outage

Below is the subject and body of the email:

Subject: A gift!!!

My friend sent me a digital camera a few days ago,which he bought at a online shop,and I am using the camera right now,I find it is original and really has superior quality,and the price is absolutely competitive in the market,he told me the company website<www.snnsn.com>,  I find they have a full range of products,and there are a great many members there,You can spare some time to log on their web to have a check,there must be something that interests you!

One interesting aspect of this email from the Gmail phishing attack was that they chunked off a couple of my client’s contacts covering first names starting with only 2 letters (in this case d through e). Below was my immediate reply to my client in response to this spam email:

At the moment I can’t find much more than this initial report (for this particular spam mail). If this looks like emails from your gmail account contacts then you’re account has been compromised (there’s been a few reports of phishing attacks on Gmail from 2009). You’ll want to change your password with one that’s at least 8 characters, a combination of letters and numbers, at least one uppercase and a special character.

After a bit more research I found a nice post in the Google support forums aptly named, “Help, spam has been sent to all of my contacts from my gmail account! How do I report this?”.

The most popular answer contained the following important tips:

If your account has been compromised/hacked/stolen you will need to check and fix at least all of the following settings.

But first you need to check the bottom of the Inbox and make sure your account is not open at any other locations.  If it shows additional locations, open the Details window and “Sign out all other sessions”.

Account Security:
Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Google Account Settings -> Change Password [pick a new secure password]
Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Google Account Settings -> Change Password Recovery Options [verify secret question, SMS and recovery e-mail address]

Potential Spam:
Settings -> General -> Signature [make sure nothing as been added]
Settings -> General -> Vacation Responder [make sure it's disabled and empty]

E-mail Theft
Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Send Mail As [make sure it is using your correct e-mail address]
Settings -> Filters [no filters that forward or delete e-mail]
Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP -> Forwarding [disabled or correct address]
Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP -> POP Download [disabled]
Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP -> IMAP Access [disabled]

In that same post there are an additional number of links referencing valuable information on how to harden your Google Gmail account and hopefully prevent or at least mitigate any future damage from these Gmail Phishing attacks.

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Here’s a list of 11 interesting links I found browsing the Web this week. I send them to myself over multiple formats throughout the week and towards the end of each (April 14th) try and record them in these blog posts.

Take a look below and I hope you find them as interesting as I did:

• Google Adds App Store for Analytics
• Define Competitors: Step 4 of the 8-Step SEO Strategy
• 11 Excellent Solutions for Making Your Website Mobile Friendly
• zRSSFeed – RSS Feeds Reader for jQuery
• Sponsored Tweets – Twitter Advertising
• WordPress API
• GroupTweet – Turns Twitter Into a Communications Hub
• 9 Useful PHP Functions and Features You Need to Know | Nettuts+
• 5 Free Services for Pre-Scheduling Your Twitter Updates
• 16 Different Clones You Can Build with Drupal
• CSS3 Gradient Buttons

That’s my list of 11 interesting links I found on the internet this week.

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Engadget snapped a few photos and was able to handle a prototype of Nokia’s N8 in London recently, which will be hitting shelves Q3 of this year loaded with Symbian 3. Below is a photo of the Nokia N8 as well as a few observations from Engadget:

The anodized aluminum shell feels very well built and is remarkably light. So much so that our first instinct was to ask whether the battery was inside or this was just a hollow mockup. We’d compare it to the feeling of picking up the Zune HD for the first time, it’s a strikingly light device. Plopping it into our pocket also felt extremely natural, which might be attributable to the particular curvature of the N8’s sides.

Please be sure to read the full post at Engadget for the the Nokia N8 Hands-On.

Cellphones, Mobile Handsets

Nokia N8 hands-on

By Vladislav Savov posted May 11th 2010 7:05AM

Hands-On

128diggsdiggGood old London, full of little wonders and flagship devices for you to discover. We were at Nokia’s local HQ this morning to talk to the company’s Head of Design Marko Ahtisaari, and the good gent happened to bring with him a prototype N8 for us to play around with. It was stressed to us that it’s a prototype, so small cosmetic changes might still occur, but we are for most part looking at the hardware that will be hitting retail shelves in Q3 of this year. Speaking of Q3, Marko was adamant that that will be when Nokia “turns on” the Symbian 3 housed within the N8, which — disappointingly — meant that we couldn’t get to grips with the new UI experience in person. Ah well, there are plenty of pictures to be devoured in the gallery below, and we can provide you with a few observations of our own to tide you over till then.

The anodized aluminum shell feels very well built and is remarkably light. So much so that our first instinct was to ask whether the battery was inside or this was just a hollow mockup. We’d compare it to the feeling of picking up the Zune HD for the first time, it’s a strikingly light device. Plopping it into our pocket also felt extremely natural, which might be attributable to the particular curvature of the N8’s sides.

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Sometimes I don’t even know why these guys bother.

Faviit lets you perform the same search on multiple search engines from a single page, thus saving you from the frustration of opening multiple browser tabs and typing the same words again and again.

You can check it out by going to Favitt.

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Here’s an open competition by Nokia called the Make My App competition in which you’d submit an idea to be voted on by a panel of judges, in which the winners’ apps would then be then developed and distributed on their App store.

Make My App competition is an exciting opportunity for anyone to submit ideas and compete for a chance to have their idea turned into real apps. Each week 10 most voted ideas are shortlisted. Our guest judges will then choose 3 winning ideas from each category.

These final 12 winners will win a trip to a Nokia event in September in London, where their ideas are turned into real apps by professional developers. When the Nokia N8 hits the stores the winners will receive a brand new Nokia N8 with their app installed.

The winning apps are also made available in Ovi Store for everyone to download and enjoy.
The submissions close on June 27th.
All you need to do is come up with the idea – Nokia will provide the developers for winning ideas.

The Prize works out like so:

Three winning ideas from each of the competition categories will be invited to the to Nokia World 2010 event in London on September 14-15. At the event, professional developers will turn these ideas into real apps within 24 hours.

The winners will also receive a new Nokia N8 device when it is available in stores with their app installed on it. The apps will be made available in Ovi Store for everyone to download and enjoy.

It looks interesting and I’ll be sure to follow their Make My App competition.

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A well written post by Adobe’s Mike Chambers in response to Apple’s latest policy restricting its applications. He seems to be angling it as a Flash vs. iPhone issue while somepoint out that it is actually a Flash vs. HTML5/CSS3 issue, which also comes with its own set of problems. The winner in this pissing match might just be — Android.

Essentially, this has the effect of restricting applications built with a number of technologies, including Unity, Titanium, MonoTouch, and Flash CS5. While it appears that Apple may selectively enforce the terms, it is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5. Developers should be prepared for Apple to remove existing content and applications (100+ on the store today) created with Flash CS5 from the iTunes store.

We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5. However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature.

http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2010/04/20/on-adobe-flash-cs5-and-iphone-applications/

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