Microsoft Suspending "Patch Tuesday" Emails 145
New submitter outofluck70 (1734164) writes Got an email today from Microsoft, text is below. [Note: text here edited for formatting and brevity; see the full text at seclists.org.] They are no longer going to send out emails regarding patches, you have to use RSS or keep visiting their security sites. They blame "governmental policies" as the reason. What could the real reason be? Anybody in the know? From the email: "Notice to IT professionals: As of July 1, 2014, due to changing governmental policies concerning the issuance of automated electronic messaging, Microsoft is suspending the use of email notifications that announce the following: Security bulletin advance notifications; Security bulletin summaries; New security advisories and bulletins; Major and minor revisions to security advisories and bulletins. In lieu of email notifications, you can subscribe to one or more of the RSS feeds described on the Security TechCenter website." WindowsIT Pro blames Canada's new anti-spam law.
Great! (Score:4, Informative)
That's the way it should be. If you want to subscribe to something, use RSS. That's totally under the control of the recipient. If you unsubscrbe from an RSS feed, there's no way the sender can keep sending to you.
It's easy to follow an RSS feed if you're using Thunderbird; a bit harder if you're a Google slave.
Re:It looks like a response to anti spam laws (Score:5, Informative)
Canada passed a new law regarding spam in electronic messages (in particular, email) starting July 1
the law is here: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca... [justice.gc.ca]
faq is here: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/com5... [crtc.gc.ca]
the potential fine is $10 million
The companies that are effected are legitimate ones who do business in Canada
The onus on proving you have permission to send an email is on the company sending it.
There has been a flurry of activity wanting permissions recently due to the legislation.
It seems that nobody really knows what it means to be identified as a spammer.
Microsoft is probably thinking - to hell with it; the risk is too high. The RSS is good enough.
Never Got MS E-mails (Score:5, Informative)
I never got E-mails from Micro$oft about updates, vulnerabilities, etc. Instead, I have an RSS feed from US-CERT (computer emergency response team), an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (Yes, they do have a few useful functions.) US-CERT not only notifies me about Micro$oft's alerts and provides links to them, but that agency also notifies me of alerts from other companies.
The link to subscribe to the RSS feed is http://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/cu... [us-cert.gov].