Anti Key Norton Virus Article
A Brief History of Spam
In the early days of the Internet, spammers primarily targeted newsgroups on USENET, the online conferencing system. These are newsgroups that are organized as forums to discuss particular topics. As electronic messaging systems advanced, it made possible the practice of crossposting - posting the exact same message to multiple newsgroups and other online forums.
Spammers were quick to adopt crossposting as a tool of their trade. Now, they could send the same electronic message to thousands of newsgroup members at the one time. Not only could they target a larger audience with one posting, but they also did not have to differentiate between the interests and focus of the individual forums that they targeted. What's more it cost them next to nothing to spam these newsgroups.
As email became an increasingly widespread mode of communication, the spammers shifted their focus the massive audience that it made available to them. Mass emailing software soon became another essential tool of their trade, as they begun to use this application to send junk email to thousands upon thousands of unwilling recipients.
The spam industry also adapted the available Internet technology to create the "spambot". A spambot is an automated program that will rove the Internet, "harvesting" email addresses from newsgroup postings and from other websites. It literally gathers thousands of email addresses in a single hour. These are compiled into bulk mailing lists with which the spammers can thousands of victims at a time.
The practice of sending out unsolicited, unwanted junk email and junk postings came to be called "spam." The term is commonly believed to have been derived from a British comedy skit by Monty Python, in which a restaurant serves each meal with a side of spam. As a waitress emphasizes to a couple the availability of spam with every dish, a group of Viking patrons break out in song, singing "SPAM, SPAM, SPAM... lovely SPAM! wonderful SPAM!" in a loud chorus. In the 80's, the term was adopted to refer to the junk emails and postings, and the name stuck.
The earliest, most widely known incident of commercial spamming dates back to 1994. It involved two lawyers who spammed USENET to advertise their services as immigration lawyers. They later expanded their marketing efforts to include email spam. The incident is commonly referred to as the "Green Card Spam."
This nefarious industry has since grown in leaps and bounds. Today, more than half of the trillion-plus emails that are sent and received are spam. Initially, spam was generally advertising-related email. In more recent years, however, a particularly nasty crop of spammers has emerged, who send out their spam with nothing less than malicious and/or criminal intent. Some send out spam that contains viruses or malicious code. Others devise scams intended to defraud you of your money. And then there are those whose focus is identity theft.
Benign or malicious, commercial or criminal - spam has transformed the way we communicate electronically, and will continue to do so well into the near future and very likely beyond. Spam has become a regular, albeit unwanted, fact of online life.
In the early days of the Internet, spam was little more than an irritating nuisance. However, like every other aspect of the Internet, spam has evolved to become something far more nefarious in nature.
To understand just how big a problem spam has become, it will help to realize the sheer volume of unsolicited junk mail is sent out every day. More than 50% of all the trillions of email that is mailed out is spam. This spam clogs up and wastes bandwidth, especially with the recent advent of image-based spam. It places a huge strain on servers and wastes a huge amount of time and money to deliver millions upon millions of unsolicited emails to the inboxes of recipients.
Mass Mailing Viruses
Aside from constantly inundating your inbox with unwanted email, spammers now also pose grave threats to the health of your computer
One of these new dangerous aspects of spam are that illicit senders can now manipulate your email addresses, and make it seem to the rest of the world that the spam that is sent is coming from your personal computer or domain. This may result in your service provider blocking your Internet connection, or terminating your account. And all of it can be done without any knowledge on your part. It can easily be made to seem that you are an actor in a malicious mail campaign when in fact you are an unwitting actor at best.
AVF
Email is the most common vehicle of choice for spreading viruses, and for hackers to get into your computer system. There is an increasing amount of this type of spam being mailed out of late. These small programs can be used in myriad harmful ways, including crashing your own system, crashing that of the parties you email or keystroke logging to gather your personal information.
Another insidious tactic that the spammers employ is called "Phishing." It involves the spammer sending out junk email that is specifically designed to look like it is from a reputable, legitimate source such as a reputable company like ebay or paypal. This spam utilizes the company's logo and official graphics.
The purpose of this type of spam is to get your personal and financial information. Often it will fraudulently send you to web sites where this information regarding email, finances, bank accounts or other personal info is gathered and used in illegal ways. Very often, the spammers will combine methods, spamming their victims with virus-laden software, phishing and other schemes that take spam to a whole new level of illicit, criminal activity.
A 2006 study by Consumer Reports estimated that in two years, Americans spent more than $7 billion on repairs and parts replacement resulting from viruses, malware and spyware. This does not take into account the cost to the Internet Providers who have to pay for all the bandwidth taken up by the spammers junk, or the cost in time, money and productivity to businesses that have to sort through all the spam.
Spam is no longer harmless, silly, or simply annoying. It is increasingly harmful and we need to protect against it.
Search
Computer security and registry cleaning
