At last, we have arrived. As you can see, spam is a huge and apparently growing problem on the internet. Due to the nature of the internet, though, it is not a problem that is easily controlled. As I outlined, spammers are spread out all over the world. Many of them reside in countries which have no laws regarding spam. Additionally, the email system, as designed, is very insecure. There is no fool-proof way to track a message to it’s sender and it is all too easy to manipulate the headers of an email to make it look like it came from anyone. It would be like all of us, anywhere, being able to type in our own name and phone number before making a call to someone and that information showing up on the Caller ID system. We would never be able to trust the information on caller ID. Instead, though, we have a centralized system controlled by the phone company which provides that control. On the internet, there is no such thing.
According to a February 2005 article, spam is costing businesses $50 billion annually worldwide, with roughly a third of that from the United States. And despite laws in the US to curb the problem, volume is growing. And, despite the use of spam filters, volume is still increasing. Many businesses are reluctant to incorporate the most aggressive spam filtering in fear of cutting communications for valid customers. So, its a true catch-22.
What is the answer? Not easy, that’s for sure. The true solution, I believe, would require a re-vamping of the entire internet email system. What we need is a system that works like the phone company and the caller ID service. In early 2005, Microsoft proposed such a plan. They are testing a system that would publish the out-going email server’s IP address on every email in a format specified by the Caller ID for Email spec. By then comparing this IP to the DNS for that IP address (much like we did above), they can determine if the email headers are spoofed. Regardless of what is implemented, though, a true solution is going to require the cooperation of all email users. Today there are too many companies that do not monitor their servers for spam or employ filtering.
The end-all solution to spam might perhaps be impossible due to political implications. The internet is a global medium, but the users of the internet are each subject to their own government’s laws. Here in the US, we have the CAN-SPAM act. While it is not very effective, it does at least ensure that those spammers who choose to comply will follow certain guidelines. But, too much spam comes from overseas where there are no laws about it. And political reality is that most of these countries are not likely to spend any time dealing with the problem. Some of these countries are very poor and hence you will find people who will throw all ethics out the window in order to make money. And, in many cases, the governments of these countries are no different. Forming a worldwide enforcement body to regulate this medium is not only hard because you likely won’t get too many nations to submit to it, but it also opens up another can of worms – regulation of the internet.
Obviously, we don’t want the internet to become a managed medium. Communication is the universal solvent. It is always good and we’d rather have communication than bombs. We obviously don’t want any managing body to be in a position where they can dictate what can and cannot be present on the internet. We get into inherent issues of free speech. So, a true solution is either going to involve the tight cooperation of private industry (good), or the regulation of a governmental body (potentially scary). Either that, or we just learn to deal with it.
One this is for sure, though – spam is here to stay. You might as well understand it and learn to deal with it. Hopefully, this article has served you to do precisely that.
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