------------------------------------------------- Tech experts test new tools to combat junk e-mail By Andrea Coombes, CBS MarketWatch.com Last Update: 12:10 AM ET July 1, 2002 -------------------------------------------------
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Even with flashy filters and oversight by Internet service providers, it's unlikely e-mail inboxes will ever be completely free of unsolicited ads and messages. Yet technology experts aren't giving up and continue to develop advanced blocking systems to reduce the flow of junk e-mail, which is often made up of dubious product offerings. Spam is a problem that's going to get worse before it gets better. An estimated 2.34 billion spam messages -- 32 percent of all e-mails -- will be sent worldwide this year, said Sara Radicati, chief executive officer of the Radicati Group, Inc., a consulting and market research firm. By 2006, nearly 40 percent of all e-mails will be junk. "I think there's a consensus among industry analysts that stopping spam entirely is impossible," said Stephen Cobb, senior vice president at ePrivacy Group. The average American will get about 700 spam messages this year, growing to 1,500 in four years, Jupiter Research said. But those are only averages. "People who have Hotmail and AOL tend to report far more spam than people who have Yahoo or a corporate address," said Jared Blank, an analyst at Jupiter Research. The figures are based on research conducted last October -- already the numbers are probably higher, Blank said. Spammers can buy an "engine" -- software that will meld e-mail addresses with text and then mail messages at a rate of 1 to 100 per second -- for about $2,000, said Sam Curry, security architect at McAfee.com. It only takes a few Internet users to buy-in to whatever is advertised for a spammer to make a profit and the junk e-mail to swell. Trusted sender Anti-spam filters are growing more popular, but Internet users still complain about their over-protection by blocking out legitimate messages that may contain catch-phrases such as "absolutely free." "There have been instances where large mailings from good companies have been filtered out," Cobb said. Here's how some tech providers are waging the war against spam: ePrivacy Group and nonprofit TRUSTe have developed a "trusted sender" technology for e-mail messages. Such messages contain a "Postiva" stamp indicating the communication came from a company complying with best practices in e-mail, similar to the privacy seals TRUSTe provides to certain retail Web sites. Within the next month, consumers may start to see e-mails marked with the seal from EarthLink, Chrysler or Dodge, Cobb said. The technology will soon be deployed for consumers to use with personal e-mail. Tag, you're it Until such time, proactive consumers seeking more ammo against spam can take matters into their own hands with Cloudmark's free SpamNet technology. Introduced about two weeks ago, the software runs beneath e-mail programs and allows users to tag spam as such. Each marked message is then entered into a database. So, if other SpamNet users receive the same e-mail, it is dropped immediately into a spam folder without the user having to see it. About 800,000 spam messages have been submitted to the network since its introduction, the company said. The software is in beta test now and runs on Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002/ XP. Out for blood Even anti-virus pros such as McAfee.com (NASDAQ:MCAF: news, chart, profile) are heading into the anti-spam arena. The company's new weapon: SpamKiller. "We think spam is more than just a nuisance -- we think it's also a security threat," said McAfee.com's Curry. Spammers with a bent for frauds soon might use worms -- viruses traveling in e-mail messages that collect names from your address book -- to promote their scams using an individual's e-mail address, Curry said. "So all of your friends get an e-mail from you that says 'I really like this product, click here to check it out,'" Curry said. Since your friends trust you, they blithely provide their credit card to buy the product online. Only, there is no product, and the scammers run away with the number. "The trick is to make it look like it came from you when it's from the spammer," Curry said. It seems no matter what new technologies are developed, spammers get to work circumventing them. Said Curry: "There is a certain cold war element, an escalation on both sides." --- [This E-mail was scanned for viruses by Declude Virus (http://www.declude.com)] --- This E-mail came from the Declude.JunkMail mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and type "unsubscribe Declude.JunkMail". You can E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. You can visit our web site at http://www.declude.com .
