Spam

From Blindside

Contents 1 What is it 2 Impact & Maturity assessment 3 Information Assurance issues 4 Timescale 5 Examples 6 Comments (attributed) 7 Organisations 8 Documents & research papers 9 Experts (academic, practitioner)

[edit] What is it

See Wendy's article

The splendid Wikipedia describes spamming as

the abuse of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages, which are generally undesired. While the most widely recognized form of spam is email spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, mobile phone messaging spam, internet forum spam and junk fax transmissions. Spam can be also called junk mail at times. Because many people don't like spam, many emailing companies have created a bulk file in users' email addresses to sort out the spam. However, not all messages can be spam in the bulk folder. The bulk folder only sorts out what it suspects is spam.

[edit] Impact & Maturity assessment

[See definition of levels]

We assign this an Impact Level of 1, our lowest level, as mechanims for successfully combating spam exist at the individual, organisational, ISP and backbone level, and industry trade groups and regulatory bodies have intitutionalised the fight against spam. The principal information assurance concern is when the volume of spam becomes so great as to constitute an unintentional denial of service campaign. We assign this a Maturity Level of 3, our highest level, as the large number of spammers and their opponents indicate that this issue is mature.

Spamming is economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and it is difficult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings. Because the barrier to entry is so low, spammers are numerous, and the volume of unsolicited mail has become very high. The costs, such as lost productivity and fraud, are borne by the public and by Internet service providers, which have been forced to add extra capacity to cope with the deluge. Spamming is widely reviled, and has been the subject of legislation in many jurisdictions.

and lists as different sorts of spam

Messaging spam

Chat spam

Newsgroup spam and Forum spam

Mobile phone spam

Online game messaging spam

Spam targeting search engines (Spamdexing)

Blog, wiki, and guestbook spam

Hobbit Spam

Spam as denial of service and

spam in gaming

If you wish to send any spam to the original spammer Laurence Canter it seems you can do it at his new web company Host Milo [dot] net, but don't say we sent you. Wikipedia reports he is separated from his law partner/wife who has since died. His shameless innovation which has annoyed so many people so much appears not to have made him happy either.

[edit] Information Assurance issues

Answer: what seem to be the likely information assurance issues of the emerging technology under discussion

[edit] Timescale

Is the impact of this emerging technology felt - now (less than 18 months) - in 2-5 years? - in 5-25 years - longer-term than that even

[edit] Examples

[edit] Comments (attributed)

What people say about this emerging technology (attributed)

[edit] Organisations

Groups which have a particular contribution or point of view about this emerging technology, eg tech businesses, user organisations or advocacy groups

[edit] Documents & research papers

Very brief abstracts or links to informative documents, presentations or academic research papers about this emerging technology

[edit] Experts (academic, practitioner)

Links to academic experts or expert practitioners and commentators on this emerging technology