Security & Privacy

An article in The Register reminds us that the very first spam e-mail was sent on May 3, 1978, or thirty years ago. Somehow, this anniversary is not much to celebrate. As most Internet users can attest to, spam is rampant; it’s the true scourge of the Internet. Many users get as many as hundreds of spam messages a day; all you need is to have one e-mail address on a web site, in forums, or on mailing lists, for spammers to harvest it, package it, and sell it along with millions of others.

While spam filters are increasingly efficient (and Intego’s Personal Antispam is recognized as the most effective spam filter for Mac), spam is constantly evolving. (This Wikipedia page explains some of the techniques used in spam, and how they change to try and fool spam filters. It’s a never-ending battle, unless the powers that be come up with a system that will authenticate messages, allowing ISPs to filter out spam.

The Register article cited above suggests that 95% of all e-mail is spam; other sources posit figures of 80-90%. But spam works; as the Register says, “a recent survey … revealed that 11 per cent of people admit to having bought goods in response to spam messages.”