Network Security News

Lack of knowledge, or simple carelessness may be responsible for the situation depicted by Ars technica in its post 12% of e-mail users have actually tried to buy stuff from spam. The number is depressing, since it demonstrates why the spam still exists and eats up precious network resources.

The post states: good luck trying to find an Internet user who admits to responding to spam. Still, they're out there, and in pretty good numbers. According to a new report, a full 12 percent of Internet users have actually wanted to pay for some product or service being advertised by e-mail.

Be honest: have you ever responded to a spam e-mail? Do you know anyone who has? If you're like most of us at Ars, you can't fathom why anyone would respond to most of the messages we get, but a new study released by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) shows that there are just enough people responding to make spamming worthwhile—especially since most spam these days is sent by botnets.

According to the group's latest report, a disturbing number of e-mail users respond to spam, and not just because they're dumb — some of them did so because they were actually interested in the product or service. Shocking, we know.

The MAAWG conducted 800 interviews by phone and Internet across the US with people who had e-mail addresses not managed by a corporate IT staff. It found that two-thirds of the group said that they were very or somewhat experienced with Internet security, and a majority used filters of some kind in order to avoid spam. Eighty-two percent were aware of bots and botnets, though not many believed they were at risk of being victimized by one.

Slightly less than half (48 percent) said that they have never clicked on a spam e-mail. That's the good news, but that means the other half have clicked on or responded to spam. But why? The answers will undoubtedly horrify you. A full 12 percent said that they were interested in the product or service being offered—those erection drug and mail order bride ads do reach a certain market, it appears.

Seventeen percent said that they made a mistake when they did so—understandable—but another 13 percent said they simply had no idea why they did it; they just did. Another six percent "wanted to see what would happen."

The above statistics can be explained by both lack of knowledge or ignoring the fact that spam exists and would exist only if it world work. The information era haven't yet formed the relevant codex of ethics, thus allowing spam and other kinds of dubious activity to thrive.

Taking into account informational aspect of the problem, the only reasonable technical solution is monitoring network activity and marking as suspicious not only the sites and servers created to exploit search engine algorithms vulnerabilities to promote miscellaneous goods and services, but also all the resources known to use unsolicited mass advertisement (via email and other communication means). Not more than a walkaround, this can only filter out junk information, while more permanent solution is being invented.

This article was brought to you by the developers of IPHost Network Monitor, network and server monitoring software.