Fragile Protection of Our Information by Companies
“We want to apologize for leaking your personal information…” This is the email message that I received from a Japanese company the other day. A couple of days ago, the company sent out an e-newsletter containing the email addresses of all recipients. The recipients were able to see the email addresses of others. Some showed full names and company email addresses, and my name was there. Continue reading…
August 22 2008 | Technology and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
Eating good food is one of the joys of living. Good food satisfies our appetite and makes us feel happy. Eating fine foods is a joy for many Japanese. Some Japanese go to Napoli to taste real Napoli pizza; others go to Okinawa to enjoy goya champuru (bitter gourd), a famous Okinawa cuisine.
Denshi-money (electric money or smart cards) makes our lives more convenient. With Edy, a rechargeable smart card, I can buy a lunch box and a snack bar at a convenience store. With Suica, a rechargeable smart card for trains and subways, I can take the subway without using a ticket machine. I can buy things and travel around even if I do not have enough cash in my wallet!
One Monday afternoon when I came back to the office from a business trip, I was trapped by my PC: “I cannot send any e-mails!” I restarted my PC several times, but the situation was the same. I kept receiving emails, but could not send any emails at all. I thought, Okay, maybe it’s a problem with Microsoft Outlook. Then I tried to send an email using another e-mailer, namely Thunderbird; but I could not send any emails using this either. Internet connections and webmail systems were functioning well, however. So, I called up the hosting company, our office manager, and an anti-virus software company to find out what had caused the problem. After spending almost a whole day investigating, I finally found out the cause of the problem: 