The LA Times reported that because of a small server company in California (McColo) that has been shut off, the amount of spam worldwide has dropped two-thirds.

Yes, it’s incredible to think that around 66% of spam you most likely see in your inbox or Spam/Junk folder came from there.

Symantec stated however that spam will jump right back up to its previous level by around Christmas December 25; the relief is only temporary as spammers scurry to find new hosting companies to start the spam engine up again.

An interesting note about this is that spam was dealt a serious blow not by anti-spam software, lawsuits against spammers or the like, but rather by taking the approach going after larger U.S. companies (i.e. U.S. host providers) that "unknowingly" assist spammers. I put "unknowingly" in quotes, because let’s be real here.. it’s all about the cash. If a hosting company is thrown big bucks for serious hosting packages as long as they pay a blind eye to what’s going on, they’ll pocket it and not care.

This should serve as a huge wake-up call to the anti-spam industry that anti-spam software and lawsuits don’t work – but human involvement in going after spam-friendly hosting companies does.

[Source: LA Times]