Spam 'cold war' set to continue

03-04-2008

by Charlie Taylor

The number of unsolicited e-mails heading for Irish inboxes rose sharply during March, according to new figures from IE Internet.

The latest data indicate that while virus attacks are continuing to decline, there's no let-up in the rate of spam circulating. During March, 67 percent of all e-mails sent to Irish users were unsolicited, compared to 60 percent in February.

While the US remains the main originator of spam, France is now emerging as a major source of unsolicited e-mails for the first time. In March, almost 40 percent of spam originated in the US, while China accounted for 23 percent of unsolicited e-mails sent to Irish users.

Singapore was responsible for nearly 15 percent of all spam heading for Irish internet users while France is now the fourth main source for spam with more than 12 percent of spam originating from the country last month. Poland meanwhile, accounted for 11 percent of unsolicited e-mails.

According to Ken O'Driscoll, chief technical officer with IE Internet, the low costs involved in sending spam mean that it's unlikely that we'll ever see a serious decline in the amount of unsolicited e-mails being sent out by spammers.

"These days it's not just one individual sending out spam from a single PC, spammers are now renting a collection of servers or compromised PCs which are used to send out e-mails en masse," said O'Driscoll.

"From a technological point of view it's pretty much a cold war going on between spammers and the anti-spam industry. When they up their game and invent a new way to get around anti-spam technology we are then forced to find methods to counteract them," he added.

O'Driscoll claims that technology alone isn't going to bring about the end of spam, there has to be effective legislation in place as well.

"The only reason that spam exists is because it makes a small number of people very rich. Spam is typically targeted at a certain individual -- someone who is between 25 and 35 years old, who's familiar with the internet, has made online purchases and is prepared to risk losing USD30. The type of goods advertised via spam usually appeal to these individuals and even if one in every 3 million e-mails are followed up then spammers are in profit so obviously there's no incentive at present for them to not spam internet users," he added.

Although there's no good news on the spam front, the rate of virus-ridden e-mails coming in to Irish inboxes is relatively low at present at 2 percent.

However, IE Internet warned that there has been a dramatic rise in the 'i-Frame' tag in e-mails which prompts users to open a new browser window. More than 26 percent of virus e-mails uncovered in March used this particular mechanism to fool internet users, the firm said.