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Can Federal Legislation Prevent SPAM?
By: Todd A Gardner, Director of Network Development and Public Policy
These days it seems that everyone is complaining about the oppressive volume of unsolicited email flooding 'in' boxes on computers around the world. Indeed, SPAM watchers tell us that today, 60% of all Internet email is SPAM, and that number is expected to grow to 70% by January 2004. By comparison, in 2001, only 7% of all email was unsolicited commercial email. The volume of SPAM appears to be doubling every 6 months - a frightening concept, to be sure.
Fighting SPAM is a challenge and has become big business. Anti-spam software must allow legitimate email through, only blocking the unwanted SPAM; consequently, to err on the side of caution most software is only capable of blocking 90 to 95% of SPAM at best.
At the same time, by most estimates revenue for SPAM-fighting products is expected to soon surpass the revenue SPAM itself generates for advertisers. Regardless of how you look at it, it is the end-user who bears the burden of fighting SPAM. Something has to be done, right?
Congress recently passed anti-spam legislation and President Bush has signed the CAN-SPAM Act into law. But will that put an end to all of our email problems? While the law attempts to stop illegal and deceptive practices, critics sight several weaknesses in answering "no".
First, the law requires spammers to eliminate extreme tactics like forging return addresses or using misleading subject lines. It also requires recipients to be given the ability to unsubscribe (or "opt out") from future mailings. Additionally, spammers would need to mark all email that contained pornographic material. Penalties include jail time and large fines for offenders. While these requirements may stop some SPAM, unfortunately the largest volume of unsolicited commercial email originates offshore, primarily in China, far outside the reach of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Secondly, while the proposed law would authorize the FTC to study and perhaps create a "Do-Not-SPAM" registry similar to the "Do-Not-Call" registry, the FTC was not granted funding to offset the expense of creating such a registry, much less what would be required to fully enforce it. Additionally, critics complain that any such registry would quickly become a rich source of legitimate email addresses for unscrupulous offshore spammers.
Finally, while the federal anti-SPAM law would standardize the legal remedies against spammers nationwide, there are those who decry the fact that the new law would circumvent some states- stricter existing anti-spam laws and penalties. For example, the federal law would take away the right that some states have granted for individuals to directly sue spammers. Under the federal law, only ISPs, the FTC, and state attorneys general would have that right.
While the law appears to be a much-needed step in the right direction, there are some weaknesses that must be addressed. At the same time the public needs to understand that while these laws can have value, they will never be the silver bullet that stops the offshore vampires.
Top 10 Viruses And Hoaxes
The top ten viruses of the year 2003 are as follows:
| 1. | W32/Sobig-F | 19.9% |
| 2. | W32/Blaster-A | 15.1% |
| 2. | W32/Nachi-A | 8.4% |
| 4. | W32/Gibe-F | 7.2% |
| 5. | W32/Dumaru-A | 6.1% |
| 6. | W32/Sober-A | 5.8% |
| 7. | W32/Mimail-A | 4.8% |
| 8. | W32/BugBear-B | 3.1% |
| 9. | W32/Sobig-E | 2.9% |
| 10. | W32/Klez-H | 1.6% |
"Sobig-F unquestionably wins the dubious title of 'Worm of the Year'. It spread more ferociously than any virus ever seen before, swamping email inboxes. Some companies reported seeing hundreds of thousands of infected emails every day," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Throughout the year, in the run-up to Sobig-F, the worm's author released new variants of Sobig almost as if he were seeing which techniques would be the most successful."
"Ironically some of the people worst impacted by Sobig-F were the spammers. They found that they could not send their millions of SPAMs as easily because their email gateways were deluged by Sobig traffic. Microsoft has issued a substantial financial reward for evidence leading to the arrest and conviction of Sobig's author, but we seem to be no closer to identifying him or her," continued Cluley.
Blaster, the year's second most prevalent worm, did not use email to distribute itself, but spread like wildfire across the Internet, exploiting - to Microsoft's embarrassment - a critical security hole in versions of Windows. Containing a mocking message for Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates, it attempted to blast one of Microsoft's websites off the Internet, leading the industry giant to take evasive action. Ironically, the third placed Nachi worm tried to undo the damage done to computers infected by the Blaster worm; in reality it only added to the chaos. Both Blaster and Nachi continue to infect unprotected computers four months later.
The top ten hoaxes of December 2003 are as follows:
| 1. | Hotmail Hoax | 21.7% |
| 2. | Meninas da Playboy | 12.7% |
| 3. | A virtual card for you | 5.9% |
| 4. | Bonsai Kitten | 5.3% |
| 5. | Press 9 | 5.2% |
| 6. | Budweiser frogs screensaver | 4.9% |
| 7. | JDBGMGR | 4.0% |
| 8. | Elf Bowling | 3.4% |
| 9. | Bill Gates Fortune | 3.2% |
| 10. | Frog in a blender/Fish in a bowl | 3.0% |
"The seasonal hoax, Elf Bowling, re-entered the chart in December, just in time for Christmas. The hoax claims that a bowling game with elves as pins is a virus which will activate on Christmas day," said Theriault. "If you receive this or a similar email hoax message, please do not forward it to your friends and colleagues. Forwarding unsolicited chain letters wastes time and bandwidth."
(Source: Sophos)
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