Last month, saw an interesting turn of events in the spam wars, as spam levels went way down.
According to the December 2008 monthly spam report from Symantec, spam levels actually dropped 65% in the 24 hours after the shutdown of the ISP McColo, which was allegedly hosting a large amount of bot-net command-and-control systems from the 24-hour period before the shut down. This is a huge coup for anti-spammers and proof that working to stop the mailing of illegitimate mail is worth the fight.
But while the battle at McColo was taken for the anti-spammers, the spammers are continuing with attacks and taking advantage of the holiday season to do so. With subject lines including, “Best Sales 2008!,” “Spend less this Christmas,” and “Christmas promo few days left,” spammers are doing what they always do: cashing in on the season to try to take advantage of consumers caught up in the holidays and looking for good deals.
And as though taking advantage of the holidays is not enough, spammers preyed on last month’s attacks in Mumbai to get people’s attention. As the world watched the horrific event unfold, spammers sent messages about how consumers could help by sending medication and such.
Tis’ the season to open e-mails with discretion.
