Security firm Sophos has launched a
Spam
Pledge to mark the 30th anniversary of junk email, urging users to help
stamp out the scourge of spam.
The first known instance of unsolicited commercial email was sent on 1 May
1978 by Gary Thuerk, a marketing rep at Digital Equipment Corporation, to 393
users of Arpanet, the precursor to the internet.
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The problem has since escalated to epic proportions. Estimates of how much of
today's email is spam varies between 80 and 95 per cent, and Sophos Labs
discovers a new spam-related webpage every three seconds.
"Gary Thuerk could never have imagined what he was starting when he sent that
mass email 30 years ago," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at
Sophos.
"There is a generation of people today who have never worked in a world
without spam clogging up their inboxes.
"What's worse is that a lot of spam is deliberately malicious, aiming to
steal bank account information or install malware. People who buy goods via spam
are merely perpetuating the problem for all users and must be stopped."
People who buy goods via spam are merely perpetuating the problem for all users
Graham Cluley Sophos
The driving factor behind the Spam Pledge is an appeal to internet users to
resist responding to spam adverts or clinking on the links.
A recent Sophos survey revealed that 11 per cent of respondents admitted to
having bought goods via spam.
"The internet community needs to do what it can to make sure that spam
doesn't celebrate a 40th or 50th birthday," said Cluley.
"That means educating the public about never buying goods sold via spam. If
you receive an unsolicited email message advertising goods, don't buy, don't
try, don't reply."
To help drive its pledge, Sophos has created a Facebook group entitled 'The
Sophos Spam Pledge, and a YouTube video of people taking the oath and promising
never to click on links in unsolicited email.
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