AfterTek

MySpace has filed suit against the notorious spammer Scott Richter and alleged followers of his for sending what could become known as MySpam. Yesterday, the Fox Interactive Media site filed a complaint in a U.S. District Court demanding a jury trial against Richter’s for sending spam messages disguised as communications from members to other MySpace members. The suit is another reminder of the ongoing corrosion of social media sites by spam and marketing exploitation that people have seen recently.

PatchGuard is a much-wanted security addition to Windows Vista that will restrict access to the Windows kernel, making it harder for hackers to run nasty software such as rootkits. But it has broken some legitimate software programs, leading to complaints from software vendors including Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc.

Microsoft fixed up PatchGuard, which also ships with 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Server 2003, last July, according to Stephen Toulouse, senior product manager with Microsoft’s security technology group. But one of the drastic changes Microsoft introduced at that time harmed the operating system’s ability to take advantage of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) virtualization technology.

Executives at eBay are keeping security as their top priority in 2007 after an internal survey showed that online scammers may be ruining the company’s reputation. The San Jose-based online auction company began a program last year to safeguard members’ identities by concealing their user names on expensive listings. That measure could make it harder for con artists to contact losing bidders and goad them into “second chance offers,” where customers wire cash to the scammers’ accounts.