Spam: An Endangered Species?

With an 82% decline in the past year, it seems the reign of spam may be at an end—or at least a pause. Or that it may be ‘ending’ or ‘on its way out.’ Or in a lull of some kind. Spam originated on a small scale, but it has grown to become endemic in the online world, with entire companies established to profit from it. The decline in the bulk of malicious emails is certainly a boon, but it remains to be seen what spammers will do next and how it will continue to interfere with legitimate marketing messages.

The Source

The first spam email was sent in 1978 to 600 addresses on ARPANET, an early precursor to the Internet. It was essentially an unsolicited, impersonal advertisement and, though it did help Gary Thuerk sell a few units, it set the stage for the trend that would see almost 97% of total email become spam by July 2010. Email spam quickly switched from being sent via individuals to being perpetuated through botnets, decentralized networks of computers infected with viruses. The viruses allow spammers to take control of the computer, sending as many emails as they wish without alerting the user. Malicious emails aren’t just used for advertising shady products, however; they are mostly used to spread malware that will allow the spammer access to sensitive data and therefore present a serious security risk for many individuals and institutions.

The Decline

The percentage of total emails identified as junk in the US declined from the all-time high in mid-2010 to around 69.9% according to Symantec. There was a sharp decline in 2010 after Russian authorities began a criminal investigation into Igor Gusev, one of the leaders of the Spamit organization. Gusev fled due to the investigation, causing his company to reduce their messages by around 50 billion per day, or 20% of the world’s total spam volume. In April the Rustock botnet was shut down by authorities, reducing total malicious Internet activities around the world, though virus and phishing levels remained steady. It would be nice if the declines were the result of advances in spam filtering, but while it works to curtail current spam techniques, spammers are continuously innovating and finding workarounds for every filter, creating a ceaseless game of cat and mouse as filters attempt to keep up with the constant onslaught of spam messages.

Spam vs. Targeted Emails

Spamming campaigns, which make use of illicit botnets to spread their vile filth, differ wildly from legitimate mass email campaigns managed through legitimate email marketing software. Spam is, by definition, nearly identical unsolicited emails sent to numerous recipients. When a user receives a message they never intended to receive and has not given out their information in order to subscribe to a list, that is spam. It does not apply, however, when a user gives out their email on a web form, even if they haven’t read the agreement posted on the website. Legitimate targeted emails are the result of a user expressing interest in a subject or company and subscribing to an email list in order to receive updates about that company. Targeted email advertising often includes personalized information, such as links to articles pertaining to the customer’s past purchases or a list of recently viewed or purchased items.