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MSN Censors Your IM

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the its-for-your-own-good dept.

Jamie ran across a story about censorship on MSN. Essentially, a number of suspicious strings result in silent failure of delivery. The strings are unsurprisingly things like .scr and .info. They've started maintaining a list if you're interested. Personally, I'd rather they fix the vulnerabilities that make those strings dangerous in the first place: it's not like IM is the only place a URL can get on your machine.

12 of 287 comments (clear)

  1. Blocked firefox.exe by nurb432 · · Score: 2, Funny

    And simply renaming worked? Your IT department is pretty inept.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:Blocked firefox.exe by lattyware · · Score: 5, Funny

      An inept IT department?
      OMFG!
      Someone alert the world press!

      --
      -- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
    2. Re:Blocked firefox.exe by Lehk228 · · Score: 2, Funny

      with two clicks you could evacuate the building? sweet next time a co-irker leaves his/her machine unlocked while they use the bathroom have a bit of fun

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  2. Re:-gasp- Slashdot, too! by KingSkippus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Reminds me of games that try to filter out all 'bad' words

    I play City of Heroes, and for some weird reason, it blocks the word "count." I think it was a typo when someone was entering words to block into the filter. It was just kind of funny, because I discovered it when I told someone, "Don't worry, you can count on me!" and it came out as "Don't worry, you can <bleep!> on me!" They had no idea what I was talking about, and it took a few entertaining minutes to hash out what was going on.

  3. .com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Do they block those scary executable .com files too?

  4. Re:-gasp- Slashdot, too! by gbjbaanb · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ah, the northern Uk town of Scunthorpe has been affected by this problem for some time now. I think a "Scun" must be a rude word in American English or something.

  5. Re:MSN does some weiiiiiird things... by tepples · · Score: 2, Funny

    That Microsoft crackden 'feature' is one big pain in the ass! Damn. The hassle Ive had with that fucking policy. How do you turn it off? One way is to install Ubuntu, but it's not for everyone.
  6. Re:The genius that is Microsoft... by rikkus-x · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Either get other friends, or convert the ones you have"

    Says the person with a binary signature.

  7. Re:The genius that is Microsoft... by Wordsmith · · Score: 4, Funny

    The day I start picking my friends based on their responses to IM security issues will be a sad, sad day.

    "Mom, I met a great girl. She's not very nice, and she's not very pretty, but she started using Jabber after the latest MSN fiasco. You'll love her. I'll have her message you; oh, but you'll have to switch of of AIM first, mom."

  8. Re:-gasp- Slashdot, too! by janrinok · · Score: 2, Funny

    WHOOSH......

    --
    Have a look at soylentnews.org for a different view
  9. Re:-gasp- Slashdot, too! by glitch23 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ah, the northern Uk town of Scunthorpe has been affected by this problem for some time now. I think a "Scun" must be a rude word in American English or something.

    No, it's "Thor". We don't like Scandinavians.

    --
    this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
  10. They ought to censor.... by madbawa · · Score: 2, Funny

    ....msmsgs.exe