Spam Attack!

In days past, IT professionals were primarily concerned about securing their systems against people who would infiltrate their networks for purpose of curiosity, or maybe to gain proprietary information for their own gain. Hackers come in many forms, some work to help better understand security issues, some may infiltrate systems but do no harm, but many are simply out to make a few bucks.

The last variety has multiplied in recent years thanks to a new advertising medium known as spam. Spam email isn't very effective by many metrics used to typically measure advertising. The response rate is abysmal, and there is a high risk of offending the recipient. However, spam has one major advantage. That is that it's almost free to send.

Almost, but not entirely free that is. Spamming requires computing power and bandwidth. At a certain scale, the cost of those items becomes prohibitive. By employing affiliate programs, many companies can enter the gray area of advertising. They can utilize third parties that they couldn't legally employ directly. Often affiliate programs use multiple layers of companies to market. A major, legitimate company such as Verizon may employ semi-legitimate promoters. Those promoters may then employ the actual spammers.

It's easy for a spammer to get started. Complete start-up packages can be purchased on online auction sites for under $100. They usually include a list of thousands of email addresses, a software application and a brief set of instructions. Increasingly, spamming software uses tricks in order to fool most anti spam programs. Websites have also been posted allowing would-be spammers to check their email against the most common server side tools for blocking email spam.

Back