This is why HTML email is evil.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/15423.html "For a very sweet dirty trick along those lines, one could embed a link to a porn picture on-line, resized at 1x1 so it's invisible in the e-mail. Network logs will show that a given employee requested, say, preteen_bestial.gif from www.loathsome-sex-offenders.com. Even better, if the company has spyware in place, the jack-booted network thugs won't even have to be notified by the trickster before grassing him out to senior management." -- ----------------------Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos--------------------------- + ^ + :Surveillance cameras|Passwords are like underwear. You don't /|\ \|/ :aren't security. A |share them, you don't hang them on your/\|/\ <--*-->:camera won't stop a |monitor, or under your keyboard, you \/|\/ /|\ :masked killer, but |don't email them, or put them on a web \|/ + v + :will violate privacy|site, and you must change them very often. --------_sunder_@_sunder_._net_------- http://www.sunder.net ------------
At 10:37 AM -0500 12/13/00, sunder wrote:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/15423.html
"For a very sweet dirty trick along those lines, one could embed a link to a porn picture on-line, resized at 1x1 so it's invisible in the e-mail. Network logs will show that a given employee requested, say, preteen_bestial.gif from www.loathsome-sex-offenders.com. Even better, if the company has spyware in place, the jack-booted network thugs won't even have to be notified by the trickster before grassing him out to senior management."
Practically speaking, an employee who had only this 1x1 tracking pic in his e-mail could probably make a good defense. Unless his employer was looking for _any_ excuse to fire him, the lack of an actual, viewable picture or message from him acknowledging the content...probably would get him off the hook. On the other hand, the U.S. is moving toward having schools and employers adopt mechanistic "zero tolerance" policies. In recent cases, merely having a tiny GIF of a gun is enough to have a child suspended and parents sentenced to "counseling." (Note that "counseling" and "political re-education" are the same thing.) In a free society, free economy, then employers and employees are much more flexible. A solid contributor would not be fired for something so trivial as having a porn picture embedded in some minor way. Hell, a solid contributor probably wouldn't be fired even for sending MPEG porn movies to his buddies! But we are not in a free society, are we? We are in a legal environment where some on-the-rag Personnel Dept. bimbo can decide to "make an example" of some shlub engineer who is caught clicking on Danni's Hot Box after work. The shlub's manager probably can't do anything except beg that both he and his subordinate be sent to 6 weeks of sensitivity training. If the bitch is feeling in control, she may assent to this. If not, or if the company fears being sued by offended employees or others, the shlub will be fired and the manager alone will be sent in for an ideological tune-up. The Thought Policeman Inside. --Tim May -- (This .sig file has not been significantly changed since 1992. As the election debacle unfolds, it is time to prepare a new one. Stay tuned.)
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Tim May