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Spam Anniversary No Cause For Celebration

Posted on: Tuesday, 1 April 2008, 01:35 CDT

Nearly 30 years after the first unsolicited bulk message was sent, spam continues to be a thorn in the side of anyone who uses e-mail.

According to the anti-spam project Spamhaus, 90 percent of all e-mail is still spam. The term, thought to have been coined 15 years ago by Usenet administrator Joel Furr, refers to the billions of junk e-mails sent every day that block mail servers, reduce network performance, infect computers, help hijack machines, and generally make the internet a frustrating experience for many.

However, he doesn’t view the anniversary of his first use of the term as a cause for celebration.

"I prefer commiseration," he told BBC News.

Mr. Furr initially coined the term in reference to bulk message postings on Internet discussion boards, but in the following years spam became associated with e-mail.

"But even today there are many discussion groups that are unusable because of the amount of spamming," he added.

"Spam is a real life arms race," Mark Sunner, chief analyst at online security firm Message Labs, told BBC News.

The term spam was inspired by a 1970 Monty Python sketch, in which a restaurant only served the processed meat product.    The sketch showed a group of Vikings who began singing, "Spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam."

According to research conducted by Brad Templeton, chairman of the board at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the term was picked up in the early 1970s in internet chat rooms. Initially used in a variety of contexts, over time the term grew into a reference for unsolicited bulk e-mail.

"Spam means there is an increasing risk to e-mail; it cannot become a reliable vehicle for getting messages across," said Richard Cox, Spamhaus’ CIO, in a BBC News interview.

"In recorded human history as communication barriers drop and as communication becomes easier civilization progresses,” said Mr . Furr.

"We have this awesome tool to make it possible for people in any part of the planet to exchange ideas with one another and yet people are going out of their way to not use it because of the spammers, because of the jerks.

"It's holding back innovation.”

"When e-mail was designed the internet was largely used by people you could trust," said Mr. Cox.

"Unfortunately not only did bad people start to use the Internet, the gates to the Internet were transferred from fairly prudent technologists to people who wanted to make money out of it.

"That's when spam caught on and ever since it has been a rear-guard action."

The first unsolicited bulk e-mail was sent by a marketing representative from computer firm D.E.C. on May 3 1978, when he e-mailed every West Coast user of Arpanet, the predecessor of the global Internet. The e-mail was an invitation to attend an event the company was hosting to showcase its latest computer products.  

Mr. Cox said many have been trying for years to persuade governments to prohibit spam.

"The Chinese and Russians are a major problem and probably always will be," he said, adding that the Chinese and Russian governments were apathetic about dealing with spam because its effects were felt largely outside their borders.

About 200 spammers worldwide are responsible for about 80% of all spam, according to the Spamhaus Project.

Sunner said spam is constantly evolving. Much of the spam sent today comes from ordinary household computers that have been hijacked by hackers, and turned into something called botnets, which automatically churn out messages.

"The bad guys at the sharp end are using these botnets to do some really clever stuff," he said, adding that hackers are at least as technically proficient as the security services trying to stop them.

Until recently, botnets could be disabled once the central server controlling the machines was located. But the latest version utilizes a technique called fast-flux domain name service that shifts the server location every few minutes.

"There are still a number of spam factories in the US which are bulk sending spam," said Mr. Cox.

Spamhaus keeps a register of known spammers and spam gangs, many of whom are in China and Russia. It also maintains a list of Internet service providers (ISPs) that are failing to address the problem of hijacked computers, such as BT, Bulldog, Wanadoo and Tiscali.

"There has been minimal activity by many internet service providers, all of whom are blaming the dubious legal situation of spam," he said.

Mr. Cox said the battle against spam was being thwarted due to lack of cross-border co-operation between governments and law enforcement.

"The spam may come from Bulgaria but if its controlled by somebody in Russia and paid for by someone in the US - who do you prosecute, and in which country?

"How do you get the evidence into the right country? We're building on this but it's a very slow process."

Mr. Cox acknowledged that spam may never be completely eliminated.

"I don't think it's realistic to believe we will never receive spam," he said.

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On the Net:

First use of the term spam

Brad Templeton on the first spam e-mail

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

Spamhaus

Message Labs

Source: redOrbit Staff and Wire Reports

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