Anti-Spam

According to both MX Logic and Messagelabs, between 60 and 70 percent of all spam is being sent from compromised or Zombie PCs that have been hijacked by malware.

MX Logic said that during June, 62 percent of all spam came from zombie systems while Messagelabs claimed the figure is closer to 70 percent. Both companies said the problem is worstening, with MX Logic reporting that spam from zombie systems accounted for 55 percent of spam in May and 44 percent of spam in April.

“The continued proliferation of zombie PCs has levied a heavy cost on ISPs and e-mail end users. Compromised PCs have resulted in millions of e-mail users being unknowingly blacklisted, often through no fault of their own,” said Chasin.

Installing anti-spam software and regularly checking for viruses and spyware can assist in protecting your computer from becoming an easy target for spammers. Don’t allow your computer to be used as a tool to send unsolicited email.

One of the tools I use to fight spam is Mailwasher Pro. This software enables you to control what email you want to download to your inbox, preventing the clutter of spam and viruses. The learning algorithm quickly identifies possible threats and enables you to blacklist the spammer and even bounce the offending email.

I highly recommend this product.

To compliment Mozilla’s fantastic Firefox web-browser is Mozilla Thunderbird. Highly praised as the best thing to happen to email in a long time, Thunderbird gives you a faster, safer and more productive email experience.

Complete with an RSS reader, Thunderbird provides an intelligent solution to spam elimination.

Free Download - Mozilla Thunderbird

Anti-spam experts believe Scott Richter, the man dubbed the Spam King, has stopped sending junk email.

According to anti-spam campaign group Spamhaus, Richter has been removed from ROKSO - an authoritative list of the world’s most notorious spammers - after he decided to go straight earlier this year.

Once the second biggest spammer in the world, Richter, who currently faces lawsuits with Microsoft and the New York State Attorney, is said to be turning his efforts to legitimate opt-in bulk mailing.

Spam King gives up spamming

Escalating the war on spam, a California company wants to let thousands of users collaborate to disable the Web sites spammers use to sell their wares.

A leading anti-spam advocate, however, criticized Blue Security Inc.’s Blue Frog initiative as being no more than a denial-of-service attack, the technique hackers use to effectively shut down a Web site by overwhelming it with fake traffic.

“It’s the worst kind of vigilante approach,” said John Levine, a board member with the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail. “Deliberate attacks against people’s Web sites are illegal.”

Spam protest service criticized as ‘vigilante’

Email authentication tools can typically reduce incoming spam to just five percent of email, new research has found - a big reduction, given that spam outnumbers legitimate mail by three to one or more.

Experts said the case for deploying such systems is therefore clear, but warned that progress would depend on a broader use of authentication systems and other anti-spam tools.

A study by email security firm IronPort found that when emails were filtered through an anti-spam system and then authenticated by tools such as Sender ID or DomainKeys, just one in 20 spam emails got through.

Email authentication takes big bite of spam

The latest news, updates and tools for eliminating spam from your life.