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55 per cent of e-mail
is spam
Linford is one of the world’s foremost fighters of spam — random e-mails that plague all our inboxes. For persons like him such ‘junk’ mail is not just a nuisance, it is a menace that could bring the e-mail system to a halt. He thinks we may have only six months left. ‘The e-mail system is on the edge of meltdown,’ he said. Internet service providers are becoming jammed. Linford believes the network will soon begin to slow down, then many e-mails will get lost, followed by the entire global system crashing. Spam will have destroyed the most revolutionary communications system since the telephone. Figures from e-mail security firm MessageLabs show that last month for the first time spam accounted for more than half of all e-mails sent, at 55.1 per cent, a third up on the month before. Linford runs Spamhaus, a project dedicated to fighting spam and tracking down those who send it. From a narrowboat on the Thames, he helps coordinate 10 volunteers around the world who maintain a ‘spam watch’ 24 hours a day. Hackers from Spamhaus have infiltrated secure Internet chatrooms where they pose as spammers to glean information on new targets or techniques. They can identify where spammers are sending from and try to block them with specially written programs. They are also collecting information on individual ‘spam lords’ and maintain a database of personal details of almost 200 of the world’s spammers. Spamming is big business, and vicious too. Linford gets regular death threats and no longer opens post sent by persons he does not recognise. It is thought that as few as 150 spammers are responsible for 90 per cent of junk mail. One of the most prolific is Alan Ralsky, who is rare among spammers in having a public media profile. He has just fitted out his home in Michigan in the USA with servers capable of sending a billion messages a day. Victims got their own back when Ralsky’s address was posted on the Internet by anti-spammers. They registered his house for thousands of catalogues, leaflets and other junk mail and soon Ralsky faced a deluge of post each day. Even if just one person
in a million responds, that is enough to make spamming profitable. The
key weapon in the spammer’s armoury is the ability to collect enormous
databases of e-mail addresses that are ‘harvested’ from the
Internet. Complex computer programs roam the Web collecting e-mail
addresses from
home pages. Other programs send randomly addressed e-mails by the
million. Every genuine The legal landscape in
which spam operates is confusing. In some countries strict laws make
spamming illegal while others have given it free rein. Even in the USA
it varies from state to state. In some states forging the headers of
e-mails is illegal, making it possible to prosecute spammers. In others
it is not.— GNS |
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THERE is a dark underbelly to this business. More than 80 per cent of children who use e-mail receive spam, or unsolicited advertising, on a daily basis, according to a survey released this week. The survey released by Internet security firm Symantec found half of the kids surveyed reported feeling uncomfortable and offended when seeing some of the e-mail content. "As with any e-mail user, kids are just as susceptible as adults to being bombarded by spam advertising inappropriate products and services, such as Viagra and pornographic materials," says Steve Cullen, senior vice president at Symantec. "Parents need to educate their children about the dangers of spam and how they can avoid being exposed to offensive content or becoming innocent victims of online fraud." Those surveyed
reported getting messages like "meet singles online," or
offers for cut-rate mortgages. Some 55 per cent have read
weight-loss messages such as "lose 15 pounds in two days,"
51 per cent have received pharmaceutical sales pitches such as
"buy herbal Viagra online," and 47 per cent have received
e-mails with links to X-rated Websites. About one in every five kids (21 per cent) open and read spam e-mails, according to the survey. Asked about their
responses, 51 per cent of the respondents said that they have felt
annoyed, 34 per cent have felt uncomfortable, 23 per cent have felt
offended and 13 per cent curious. — AFP |
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HUNCHED
over his computer keyboard in a London suburb, Steve Linford is fighting
a desperate war. The numbers ranged against him are growing and he fears
he may be losing.