Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
The Fight Against Spam Continues
Monday, May 23, 2011 by Michelle Hartley
Spam -- a consistent and daily part of our lives. Never a
pleasant sight, each morning you open your email only
to see several different emails from companies you have never
heard of offering you products you have zero interest in obtaining.
Programmers, scientists, and computer technicians have tried for
years to develop programs and software to stop the spread of spam.
A team of scientists at two University of California campuses are
taking the opposite approach -- collecting all of the spam they
can.
The mission of these scientists was to find the root cause of
all spam in order to discover a way to stop it. According to the New York Times
article "Study Sees Way to Win Spam Fight," the
scientists were in search of the "'choke point' that could greatly
reduce the flow of spam." Turns out, they are reporting they found
it.
From purchasing several thousand dollars' worth of merchandise
from spam related emails, the researchers found that over 95% of
their credit card transactions were handled by 3 financial
companies based in 3 different countries. Legal action against
these companies seems to be the most logical and ethical way to rid
the world of a good amount of spam, but actions like that have been
taken in the past to no avail.
The scientists believe that we do not need to take action
directly against the spam companies themselves -- but against the
credit card companies that aid these spammers in receiving their
revenue. By shutting down their only source of payment, the
spammers will not be able to conduct their business. The only way
these under-the-radar companies can receive payment is through
credit card purchases online. By taking that away, you take away
their revenue.
Steve Kirsch, chief executive of Abaca Technology states, "If
the credit card companies wanted to shut down the spammers, we can
easily aid them in rapidly and unambiguously identifying the
merchant accounts used by spammers." If the credit card companies
were to block payment, spammers would have to incur the cost
themselves.
Dr. Stefan Savage of the University of California, one of the
scientists involved in the study states that, "The defenders can,
in principle, identify which banks the scammers are using far
faster than they can get new banks and for basically zero cost."
Since the work is already done and the scientists are more than
willing to hand over the information needed to shut these major
spammers down, there is very little left for the credit card
companies to do -- it is simply a matter of them acting on it.
As we lie in wait to see if the credit card companies will help
aid in the fight against spam, it is still important to have an
up-to-date spam filtering solution. If you are looking into spam
filtering solutions to help protect your small business against
viruses or spyware threats, contact Switchfast at 773.241.3007
or TheFutureOfIT@switchfast.com.
Until next time -
Michelle Hartley
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Support &
Consulting
DC IT Support &
Consulting
Outsourced Marketing Services
Leave comment: