There were several news stories the last few days about the European Union (EU) releasing a study demanding that its members do more to protect the user against spam. Readers can find the report "On fighting spam, spyware and malicious software" here.
The report outlines the initiatives it wants the member states to take. However, the proof is in the electronic pudding. While the report sights the Netherlands with a Euro 570,000 equipment investment reducing spam by 85%, I am much more skeptical.
First we had Bill Gates and others two years ago telling us spam would be dead by 2006. In fact, the opposite occurred. Today over 90% of internet email is spam.
Further, the economic model for organized crime is very good using spam. According to Spamhaus, an organization devoted to fighting spam, approximately 80% of spam is created by 200 criminal gangs.
I personally feel it is going to take at least a year or two before governments get their legislative acts together and countries join together to track down and eliminate botnet operators (i.e. the criminal gangs).
While the Netherlands makes for a nice story, will it remain that way over the next year or two? How will they prevent targeted spam from penetrating enterprise networks?
The EU is taking the right steps in beginning to request member states to do something. However, it's going to take a lot more than that to stop spam. Meanwhile, enterprise face rising risks of malware attacks from the botnets who not only spread out spam, but also worms and other malware attacks that can significantly harm an enterprise.
Guy
www.authenticationworld.com
guy.huntington@authenticationworld.com
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