PSI - Spam is No Laughing Matter

Spam is No Laughing Matter

Published in the Longmont Daily Times-Call, May 30, 2004

I need bigger breasts. Actually, as a 40-something GUY I'm actually okay in that department, but based on the unsolicited e-mails that arrive daily, there are apparently several body parts that could stand some improvement. Never mind that these folks don't know me from Adam (or Eve for that matter); every day my in-box is flooded with all sorts of junk from "personal improvement" to Nigerian financing schemes and every shade of slime in between.

Unsolicited commercial e-mail, or "spam", has exploded in recent months. What used to be a dozen or so messages a day now numbers in the hundreds. Some messages are irritating; others are actually offensive. And alarmingly, the count of malicious messages is growing at an unbelievable rate.

It's remarkably easy for someone to find your e-mail address and start sending you junk. Send a message with your address anywhere in it and the cycle begins. That cute message that says "if you love me you'll forward this on to ten of your closest friends" may seem harmless enough, but fall prey to it and you might as well leave your front door unlocked - you're exposed.

But what drives a person to send hundreds or possibly even millions of messages? For some, spam is believed to be the source of all sorts of treasure. Though distasteful, spam is a burgeoning business and as long as there are agencies willing to pay based on the volume of messages sent, there will always be people lining up to click "Send". Even when 99% of the messages end up in the trash, sending a million messages a month still leaves the potential for 10,000 messages to be seen.

For others, spam is an opportunity to wreak havoc by attaching viruses, "snoop ware", and other malicious payloads. Open the message, your system becomes infected, and the infection then opens up your machine to be the host for more havoc. With some e-mail programs you don't actually have to open the message; Simply display it on the screen and there's potential for exposure.

Perhaps the greatest asset for a spammer is a qualified e-mail address. Once a spammer knows that your address is valid, they have something to sell. And as the old shampoo commercial used to say "they tell two friends, and so on…" until your in-box is clogged with all sorts of who-knows-what.

It may surprise you then to learn that you may have qualified your own e-mail address without even knowing about it! E-mail that displays any graphic - even as small as a single pixel - can carry a payload that identifies you to a spammer. Display that graphic and your e-mail address becomes a qualified asset. Or perhaps you've clicked on one of those "remove me from your list" links? If so, you may have qualified your address and opened yourself up to a whole host of new intrusions.

So what can we do about it? First, always use virus protection software from a reputable source. Next, change your e-mail viewer to display messages only when you want, not automatically. This way, you can delete suspected spam without ever displaying it. Disable the display of images in your e-mail. You might also consider installing anti-spam software, which usually filters out junk better than e-mail programs by themselves. Finally, remember that general caution is the order of the day; Don't open messages from someone you don't know, and don't forward to everyone in your in-box. You wouldn't want your friends leaving your doors open, so why expose them the same way? Besides, Uncle Fred's breasts are probably just fine.

Kevin King is the President and Chief Technologist with Precision Solutions, Inc., a leading technology solutions provider in Longmont, Colorado. He can be reached by email at Kevin@PrecisOnline.com or by voice at 303/651-7050.