New
bio:
Ann Elisabeth Nordbø works as a security specialist at Nittedalsnettet, a local ISP in Norway that's wholly owned by
Hafslund. She's the mailserver administrator, and likes tuning her servers to reject as much spam as possible.
She's taken two websites to the top, gaining recognition and a niche position as a leader in her field. One website (spamhuntress.com) was perhaps to the first blog to take webspam seriously, and quickly shot to the top in that field. The other (nativecelebs.com) is for Native American actors and their fans, and got started as a way to help a friend who happened to be Native American and an actor
(That site has been sadly neglected lately. I need some free time to
maintain it!).
Ann Elisabeth has a degree in theology (cand. theol.), which is roughly the equivalent to a major in divinity. Although she would like to work in that capacity at some time, fate has so far taken her in another direction.
She started out teaching, but found she liked lecturing better than class room teaching. She then fulfilled her lifelong passion for photography, and worked in that field for a few years. She had a contract with a stock photo agency, and saw innumerable photos published, including many magazine covers. She also wrote special interest articles for magazines, especially about indoor plants.
Another lifelong passion is music. She's a singer who's performed for thousands of people. Although her musical tastes are eclectic, her voice lends itself well to anthems. She also sings gospel and country as well as leads worship.
When she took her father's ageing computer on the internet in 1996, she learned so much from upgrading it (the cabinet, the power supply and one floppy drive were the only original parts left when she was done) that she got recruited into the computer industry. Pretty soon she found herself at home with Linux and Unix servers, and with a special affinity for mailservers. That path has so far ended up at Nittedalsnettet.
Ann Elisabeth likes investigation, and uses that sensibility in her job as well as on her blog. Reading raw logs may be tedious to others, but it speaks to her about invidiual personalities, choices and patterns visible in both weblogs and mailserver
logs.
I retained some parts of the old bio:
How come I hunt spammers?
Some have asked how come I've managed to track down a few spammers that
tried to hide as best as they could? Well, I've been tracing headers for a
few years, and I started reading raw logs in 1997. By now it's second
nature. Online friends have asked me to track down people before, for
various reasons. Including a troll we had once that used a compromised
computer to troll from. Let's just say that case was tough, and required a
lot of new skills. I learn very quickly, have a nose for investigation,
and although I'm not a programmer, I have read enough about programming,
so I understand code up to a certain level. That includes javascript, PHP
and PERL. And quite a few Apache modules. But none of these skills would
matter, if I didn't have a logical mind and the ability to see where
pieces fit and why.
So, why do I hunt hackers? It's fun. And getting spammed is irritating.
And I like attention...
About hacking*
Over the years I've been accused of being a hacker a few times. I just
want to take the time to let you guys know: I'm not. I don't have the
skill set for one. And my ethics won't let me probe beyond a certain point. I will never break in
anywhere. The information I find and use is
publicly available. ALL OF IT. Anyone can do it, as long as they're
willing to put in the time to get proficient in it. My firewall blocks
most ports, BTW, and that includes outgoing. And, I realized: Telnet.
Haven't used telnet in a year or so, and it's been blocked ever since I
got DSL. And I don't use nmap or similar. I don't go beyond DIG, actually.
My ISP is small enough so they know me, so fraudulent complaints won't do
you any good
My e-mail address:
Footnotes Hacking*: The word hacker can mean someone who's an adept
programmer and geek. It doesn't have to mean a blackhat. The whitehat
hackers prefer to term a blackhat: cracker. Well, I'm neither...
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