Consumer Advocate
September 15th, 2004
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Useful advice on how to protect yourself against scams, attacks on
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September 15th, 2004
Spam Slayer: The Fog of Spam War
Senior Writer Tom Spring
After nearly a year of lawsuits against bulk e-mailers, improvements
in antispam technology, and passage of the Controlling the Assault of
Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing law (CAN-SPAM), spam fighters
face an unenviable choice: They can concede their new weapons are not
as effective as they'd hoped, or they can claim progress despite some
failures.
Spam volumes are on the rise, say several recent surveys. In early
August, the nonprofit group Consumers Union reported that in a survey
of 2000 e-mail users, 47 percent said spam had increased since the
federal antispam law took effect in January. Sixty-nine percent said
at least half the e-mail they receive is spam. This corresponds to a
Commtouch Software study, which reports a 42 percent increase in the
first half of 2004:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/221165/21421686/755128/0/
Judging from reader feedback and my own experience, these studies seem
right on the money.
Who's Claiming Victory?
But here's a weird thing: No matter how heavy the spam gets for us
e-mail users, the news is always good from leading spam-fighting
e-mail providers like America Online, EarthLink, and Microsoft.
Microsoft recently told me that Hotmail users have seen a 60 percent
decrease in spam volumes. AOL says spam's entry to AOL in-boxes has
dropped "noticeably." And EarthLink says customers who use its
optional free spam-blocking feature can "eliminate virtually 100
percent of all junk e-mail." Read "EarthLink Updates Service, Adds
Features" for details:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/221165/21421686/755129/0/
Do these well-intentioned slayers of spam live in the same universe as
the rest of us?
But wait--the news is even better from companies that block spam from
corporate networks. Antispam company Postini says companies that use
its advanced spam filters "experience a 90 to 99 percent reduction in
spam." I guess Consumers Union didn't survey any Postini customers.
Apparently Brightmail customers, who enjoy a "95 percent effectiveness
rate," aren't well represented in the survey results either.
The story is the same with desktop software. Allume (formerly Aladdin
Systems) says its SpamCatcher "blocks 99 percent of unwanted e-mail"
and Cloudmark claims its SpamNet provides a 98 percent drop in spam.
Taking those claims at face value, one might conclude the war against
spam has already been won. Hardly.
Rose-Colored Glasses
Vendors tout success in the spam wars not simply to win new customers.
My guess is that the folks who work for companies like Microsoft,
which filed 60 spam-related lawsuits over the past two years, need to
feel they are making a difference. Read "Microsoft Shuts Down Spammer"
for background:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/221165/21421686/755130/0/
Don't get me wrong: We should be enormously grateful to these
companies for spending millions of dollars to combat spam. Anybody
with an in-box should applaud EarthLink for taking down the Buffalo
Spammer. AOL also fights spammers in court.
For details on these efforts, read:
"ISPs Pitch In to Stop Spam"
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/221165/21421686/755131/0/
"EarthLink Wins $16 Million in Spam Case"
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/221165/21421686/755132/0/
"AOL Tries Again to Tackle Spam"
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/221165/21421686/755133/0/
But keep in mind that ISPs don't fight spam simply because it's a
nuisance to you and me. Spam costs ISPs millions of dollars each year.
The unwanted, excess e-mail hits them with the costs of data storage
and of bandwidth to send and receive messages, plus their investments
in spam-filtering technologies. It's also expensive for an ISP to lose
any customer who is flooded with spam and thinks a new ISP might fight
spam more effectively.
Clearly spam is a scourge to individuals, ISPs, and big businesses.
Ferris Research forecasts U.S. companies will spend $10 billion this
year to fight spam. The figure includes lost productivity plus the
cost of spam-fighting hardware and software, and the technical staff
needed for combat.
The Measure of Success
Even the e-mail providers' impressive-sounding spam-blocking
statistics reveal a failure: A 95 percent filter accuracy rate, for
example, still lets through 5 out of every 100 spam messages. The sad
reality is some of us are getting hundreds of unsolicited messages
each day; even filtered, that means upwards of 35 spam messages a
week.
The only filter that is 100 percent accurate is a challenge/response
system. This type of filter is permission-based, which means messages
are blocked if they come from anyone who isn't on your whitelist. But
there's more to a challenge/response system.
A simple whitelist system works fine if you're expecting e-mail only
from your friends, whom you can put on your list in advance. But
blocking every unknown sender isn't practical. That's where
challenge/response comes in. When someone not on your whitelist sends
you an e-mail, the filter responds with a message directing the
correspondent to perform some action, such as clicking a link. If the
sender responds correctly to the challenge, the e-mail address is
added to your whitelist, and subsequent messages get through. The idea
is that bulk e-mailers can't perform such individual tasks, and so
their e-mail remains blocked from your in-box.
What Spam Filter?
The real story isn't that consumers are complaining about receiving
more spam at the same time antispam firms are touting spam-free
in-boxes. Rather, my hunch is a lot of people are like my brother: He
gripes about spam, but he can't be bothered with using a spam filter.
Astonishingly, 46 percent of e-mail users do not use any spam filter,
according to a 2003 study by Forrester Research. The same study
reveals that 44 percent rely only on the spam filter their ISP
provides. Only 5 percent use both their ISP's filter in combination
with desktop spam-filtering software.
Today, with spam harboring viruses, distributing phishing lures, and
spreading Trojan horses, spam filters are as essential to computing as
virus protection and firewalls. A good spam filter--on the desktop as
well as on the e-mail server--is essential, no matter how successful
your ISP says it is when it comes to fighting spam.
For more on the threats posed by spam, read these articles:
"New Bagle E-mail Worm Spreads"
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/221165/21421686/755134/0/
"Does That Web Site Look Phishy?"
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/221165/21421686/755135/0/
"New Trojan Horse Travels By Spam"
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/221165/21421686/755136/0/
Read "Spam-Proof Your In-Box" for reviews of antispam products:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/221165/21421686/755137/0/
* Q&A *
Q. One curious thing I've noted in a good portion of the spam I
receive is that the body of the message is peppered with gibberish,
random words, or made-up words. What purpose does this serve for the
spammer?
--Bruce C., Youngstown, New York
A. Spam filters will often look for word patterns that indicate a bulk
e-mail campaign. Once a spam filter sees, say, 50 messages with the
identical phrase in it, the filter can block sometimes millions of
other messages that contain the same phrase. Spammers try to outwit
this type of filter by randomly generating gibberish and made-up words
that throw off spam filters.
Have a question or comment? Write to Tom Spring:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Read Tom Spring's regularly published "Spam Slayer" columns:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/221165/21421686/364428/0/
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