Spam Doubles, Finding New Ways to Deliver Itself
- Published:
- Briefs, Case Studies, Papers, Reports
- Author(s) and Contributors:
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Author(s): Brad Stone
- Source(s) and Collection(s):
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Sources(s): Community
Abstract
According to spam-filtering company IronPort Systems, spam doubled from last year to this year, now representing more than 90 percent of all e-mail traffic. Much of the increase is attributable to image spam, which quadrupled over the same period of time and now accounts for between 25 and 45 percent of all spam. With image spam, text is converted to graphics, which can be read by individuals who receive them but not by spam filters on the lookout for words and phrases that can identify a message as spam. The recent rise in spam comes after the passage in 2003 of federal legislation intended to limit junk e-mail and a prediction by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates that same year that the problem of spam "will be solved by 2006."