Spam 95% of All Email?

Contradictory reports seem to be a bound regarding exactly how much of all email is actually spam. Also at question is whether spam is increasing or decreasing.

AOL had claimed it's on a slight downward trend. Spam mail blocker Brightmail had claimed its going up - but only a little bit.

Now anti-spam organization Spamhaus has claimed spam is on target to hit an alarming level of 95% of all email on the internet by 2006. They say that the surge in spam is due to recent release by Russian software manufactures of proxy spam utilities.

This software lets spammers easily send their messages out to millions of recipients via compromised computers. By relaying their messages via these hacked system they make themselves harder to trace and less subject to junk email filters.

According to Spamhaus this proxy relayed spam is an extremely concerning development. The software makes it extremely easy for anyone to send huge amounts of bulk email without getting shutdown by their ISP.

If their predications are accurate, email systems would need extensive upgrading to avoid the overload from handling each unwanted spam message.

To help avoid getting hacked, end-users should make sure their systems are up to date with the latest patches. Also, care should be taken when installing software from questionable sources.

To help keep the level of incoming spam to a manageable level, end-users may want to consider deploying anti-spam software on their own systems. A free anti-spam software trial download is available from www.spambutcher.com.

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