Hi,
And they're on mess.be. Since mess.be doesn't allow direct links to their content, I am
repasting it for convenience
Upon request we have received official communication from Microsoft on the *.info filtering
that has been going on in the background for a few weeks:
"In order to prevent the spread of a malicious advertising effort that included Windows Live
Messenger accounts as targets, Microsoft took steps to block instant messages that include
the words ".info" and a few additional key words to protect our customers. The targeted
accounts were sent either info or another URL, which led to a website asking them to provide
their Windows Live user id and password. If the customer provided that information, the user's
complete contact list also received a message with the domain site link. This was not a
Microsoft sponsored effort, and in order to prevent the spread of it through our service,
instant messages that include the words ".info" and a few additional key words have been
blocked. This action may block some safe, reputable sites and we apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause our customers, however, given the circumstances this action was
necessary. In an effort to remedy this moving forward, Microsoft continues to investigate
other ways to protect our consumers from this threat.
Microsoft recommends that Windows Live Messenger users do not provide their account
information to third-party sites. To learn more about how to recognize a social engineering
threat, more information is available at
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...gineering.mspx. In addition, Microsoft
continues to encourage people to follow the "Protect Your Computer" guidance of enabling a
firewall, applying all software updates and installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software.
Additional information can be found at www.microsoft.com/protect."
Nothing new here, but our upset reaction to what could be considered as censorship appears to
have come across. While writing this, I noticed that they have weakened the filter to some
extent:
1) You can now send .info if it's not part of an URL.
2) You can send
www.* hyperlinks to domains that start with info (with possibly a few
exceptions), eg.
www.infosyncworld.com and
www.informationweek.com.
3) If you send a blacklisted string, you'll get an error message informing you that "The
following message could not be delivered to all recipients". Unfortunately, this notification
appears rather randomly and not on every single filtering occasion.
--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources -
http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2007 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--
"Jonathan Kay [MVP]" <> wrote in message
news:89C2FB3C-06AD-4663-A3EC-...
> Hi,
>
> Yes I noticed this too. The problem has gotten recent press after years of being ignored,
> so it's unclear exactly what's being tweaked about it now.
>
> I'm sure some sort of details will be available in the near future.
>
> --
> Jonathan Kay
> Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
> Associate Expert
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
> Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
> All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2007 Jonathan Kay.
> You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
> --
>
>
> "Wes." <> wrote in message
> news:923CC2E7-2582-46FA-BDA2-...
>> Jonathan, thanks for your reply..
>>
>> Since today i'm getting a notification if the message is blocked:
>> " The following message could not be delivered to all recipients:
>> http://www.misbruik.%69nfo "
>>
>> I'm pleased with that solution, so i know when the message is "blocked".
>> But as you can see in the message above the workaround doesn't work anymore!
>>
>> Wesley.
>>
>>
>> "Jonathan Kay [MVP]" wrote:
>>
>>> Greetings,
>>>
>>> It's not a bug -- it's done on the server. .Info domains have obviously (this is not
>>> official, but it's the reasoning for this filtering when done in the past) been
>>> identified as
>>> a major source of Messenger worm activity.
>>>
>>> I realize your site is not, but it's not that selective I'm afraid.
>>>
>>> As a workaround, you can do http://www.misbruik.%69nfo
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jonathan Kay
>>> Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
>>> Associate Expert
>>> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
>>> Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
>>> All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2007 Jonathan Kay.
>>> You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Wes." <> wrote in message
>>> news:574A6E42-DF41-4053-90A8-...
>>> >i was chatting with a mate of mine, and he didn't received the url of my
>>> > website ?
>>> >
>>> > Could someone of you microsoft wizards tell my why i can't talk about my own
>>> > website ? ( http://www.misbruik.info/ )
>>> >
>>> > If you guys use something of content filtering i would like to know when my
>>> > message is blocked.
>>> >
>>> > This "bug" was tested with more then 15 systems, using Live messenger 8.5,
>>> > windows messenger 4.7 and windows messenger 7.something.
>>> >
>>> > Can someone in the name of god tell me what's going on ?
>>> >
>>>
>
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