Spam continues to blight e-mail exactly 15 years after the term was first coined and almost 30 years since the first spam message was sent.
The term is thought to have been coined by Joel Furr, an administrator on the net discussion system Usenet, to refer to unsolicited bulk messages. More than 90% of all e-mail is spam, according to anti-spam body Spamhaus.
"Spam is a real life arms race," said Mark Sunner, chief analyst at online security firm Message Labs. Billions of spam e-mails are sent each day, blocking mail servers, slowing down networks, infecting people's computers with viruses, helping hijack machines and generally making the internet a painful experience for many.
Mr Furr told BBC News that the anniversary of his first use of the term was no cause for celebration.
News Source: BBC News
The term is thought to have been coined by Joel Furr, an administrator on the net discussion system Usenet, to refer to unsolicited bulk messages. More than 90% of all e-mail is spam, according to anti-spam body Spamhaus.
"Spam is a real life arms race," said Mark Sunner, chief analyst at online security firm Message Labs. Billions of spam e-mails are sent each day, blocking mail servers, slowing down networks, infecting people's computers with viruses, helping hijack machines and generally making the internet a painful experience for many.
Mr Furr told BBC News that the anniversary of his first use of the term was no cause for celebration.
News Source: BBC News
94...out of 8,578 possible in a 24 hour period. We're tiny, can you imagine what the big boys are getting?
I think that is becoming less true as spam now is often less about selling a product and more about trying to defraud you in some way. Obviously it is still profit driven, but not in the traditional way.
Wise up, netizens! Spam is not called for.
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.