Just because Christmas week is supposed to be a slow news week doesn’t mean it’s a no news week…
Good news, bad news on the phishing front
**
If you're finding this article useful, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser.
**
First the good news. According to security company Websense, the amount of phishing attempts we’re finding in our email dropped remarkably this year, from 1.12% of all email volume down to 0.5%. Now, the bad news. The folks doing the phishing are getting better at targeting their attempts, so they don’t need to send as many emails to hook their prey.
What were the ten best stories we published on FOSS Force this year? Well, that would depend on a lot of things, wouldn’t it, such as who’s asking? We could tell you what we think our ten best stories were this year, but we’ll hold that until next week. Today we’re going to look at the ten stories that got the most reads on our site this year.
** If our coverage matters to you, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **
Since 2005, with the exception of last year, I have “worked” every Christmas day. I accentuate “worked” because I am lucky enough to have a job that feels more like a hobby than it does labor. I give computers to kids who cannot afford them. What’s not to like? I plan to work some of Christmas morning this year too.
This year is a special though.
Why?
**
If you're finding this article useful, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser.
**
Because I wasn’t supposed to be here. In fact, I wasn’t to be anywhere. Not in one piece anyway.
In October, 2000, when Microsoft was presumably working on what would become XP, they were hacked. Somebody broke into their systems and managed to at least look at source code for Windows and Office. The folks in Redmond dutifully called in the FBI, examined their code and found it hadn’t been compromised. Or so they said.
“It is clear that hackers did see some of our source code,” Ballmer announced to a group of reporters and programmers at a seminar he was attending in Stockholm. “I can assure you that we know that there has been no compromise of the integrity of the source code, that it has not been modified or tampered with in any way.”
**If you’re finding this article useful, please consider helping us reach our absolute minimum daily goal of $58 today so our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser stays on track for May. Any amount helps.**
The point of sale locations at Target stores — ground zero for the latest data breach.At the time, this was disturbing, more so than if it were it to happen today. It was also an eye opener.
Credit card breach at Target affects over 40 million
Merry Christmas. Your bank account has been drained.
This week’s holiday cheer was marred for millions as they learned that their banking information might be in the hands of hackers.
**If you’re finding this article useful, please consider helping us reach our absolute minimum daily goal of $58 today so our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser stays on track for May. Any amount helps.**
Target has announced that over 40 million customer credit card transactions have been hijacked since Black Friday. The data was stolen from transactions at the retailer’s brick and mortar stores. Online transactions are evidently not affected. All information contained in a credit card’s magnetic stripe has been compromised, enough information to make counterfeit cards.
The story was originally made public on Wednesday by security expert Brian Krebs on his site KrebsonSecurity. This afternoon, Krebs wrote in an update that information pilfered from Target was making its way to the black market.
Last week, we talked about just how important even your smallest contribution to FOSS might be. It doesn’t matter whether you occasionally spend time in forums helping others or if you submit code for review into the kernel. Everything you do goes into the sand pail. Eventually, everything you do filters down to the place it’s needed most: the everyday computer user.
**
If you're finding this article useful, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser.
**
This could be my sister, your cousin or the guy who bags your groceries at the supermarket…even your doctor. Your contribution benefits tens of thousands of people you will never know, people who will never know you even exist. Thus the beauty of what we do. “We” as in you and I.
Just three months ago, back in September, WordPress issued version 3.6.1 of their content management and blogging platform. Last week they issued 3.8. In between there was 3.7 and 3.7.1, the later release raising eyebrows when it included an automatic “minor point” upgrade feature that can’t be easily disabled.
**
If you're finding this article useful, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser.
**
That’s an average of one release per month, a burden for someone trying to keep sites safe from exploitation by the black hats. By quickening the pace of releases, WordPress may be inadvertently forcing webmasters into remaining with older versions, a potential security risk. Just as the enterprise balked at too much “release often” pressure from their vendors, folks who administer WordPress sites would be justified in complaining and pushing for a solution to this aspect of the WordPress development process.
So far the state of Oregon has paid Oracle at least $43 million dollars for a website primarily intended for residents to use to enroll for healthcare insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The site was initially due for delivery on October 1, which now has been pushed back on numerous occasions because the site doesn’t work. In fact, by all accounts, it’s an outright disaster.
**If you’re finding this article useful, please consider helping us reach our absolute minimum daily goal of $58 today so our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser stays on track for May. Any amount helps.**
The most recent missed deadline was announced on December 5, according to a report from KOIN TV.
“Cover Oregon’s former director, Rocky King — who took a long-term medical leave of absence last week — had said the online system would be ready Monday for insurance agents and community groups that have contracts with Cover Oregon, and then Dec. 16 for all individuals. King was replaced by Goldberg, who is the director of the Oregon Health Authority…
“Both those deadlines will be missed. In an email to KOIN Monday, Cover Oregon spokesman Michael Cox alleged that the Dec. 9 and Dec. 16 dates were ‘targets set by Oracle, not deadlines set by Cover Oregon.'”
**
If you're finding this article useful, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser.
**
Only three months after the Snowden leaks on NSA snooping began, we learn from Ars Technica that the developers at FreeBSD have decided to rethink the way they access random numbers to generate cryptographic keys. Starting with version 10.0, users of the operating system will no longer be relying solely on random numbers generated by Intel and Via Technologies processors. This comes as a response to reports that government spooks can successfully open some encryption schemes.
And no…I’m not inferring that this an announcement for a Mafia-oriented Distro. Lessee…what would that be if it were?
MafiaNix? MobBuntu?
Never mind…just riffin.
**If you’re finding this article useful, please consider helping us reach our absolute minimum daily goal of $58 today so our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser stays on track for May. Any amount helps.**
La Casa Nostra.
While I don’t have any mob connections, I did check with Google to affirm that it loosely translates to “This thing of ours” or “This Thing.” It implies a shared experience and benefit across a large number of joined people or participants. So yeah…Linux most certainly is “This Thing Of Ours.” I consider you and I in that citizenry.
