The Proliferation of Spam
"Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam...." While Monty Python may have been singing about the meat product known as Spam, spam has taken on a much more serious connotation in reference to e-mail. Monkeys.com defines spam as "one or more unsolicited messages, sent or posted as part of a larger collection of messages, all having substantially identical content." Spam is not just a nuisance; it is a major problem. "Nearly 40 percent of all email is spam." (Powell)
While this may seem like an annoyance, it is actually a lot more. Andrew Zolli states, "A report by Ferris Research found that spam cost U.S. businesses more than $10 billion last year. And the outlook is not sunny: Research firm Gartner Inc. recently reported that spam is increasing 1,000 percent a year and will represent more than 50 percent of all e-mail in 2004." To indicate how big a problem spam is, 68 billion e-mail messages are sent daily, and of them, 42.84 billion are spam messages, as reported by Ron Anderson. This indicates that spam has already surpassed Gartner Inc.'s projection.
Another concern and cost of spam is the concept of phishing. Andrew Zolli describes phishing this way: "An e-mail from your bank (or PayPal or eBay) asks you to click a link to update your account info. Except that the e-mail is not really from your bank, and the site you're directed to is just a spot-on look-alike."
Spamming is so prevalent due to the ways in which it can be sent. Spam can be sent by taking control of other computers via a virus or trojan.
If that doesn't make you nervous enough, this SecurityFocus article ought to do the trick. The article is pretty technical, but the gist is spammers are now using sophisticated software to break into computers, insinuate themselves into the operating system, and gain control of the system to send their spam... all under the nose of the inattentive computer owner. In fact, MessageLabs has been quoted as saying over 60 percent of spam is sent from commandeered computers. (Carton)
Another way it is sent is by using e-mail spoofing. E-mail spoofing is defined by TechTarget as "the forgery of an e-mail header so that the message appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Distributors of spam often use spoofing in an attempt to get recipients to open, and possibly even respond to, their solicitations." Another simple way is by the use of open relay. Whatis.techtarget.com explains open relay as follows: "An open relay (sometimes called an insecure relay or a third-party relay) is an SMTP e-mail server that allows third-party relay of e-mail messages. By processing mail that is neither for nor from a local user, an open relay makes it possible for an unscrupulous sender to route large volumes of spam." A less-used method for sending spam is what is known as a "throw away" account. A spammer opens a free e-mail account and proceeds to push through as much spam as they can possibly get away with on that account. As soon as they have sent what they can or when they are detected, they close the account and try some other email service.
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