14 DAY TRIAL // Back in 2004, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, then still Chief Software Architect, a title handed over to Ray Ozzie in 2006, predicted a spam-free world by 2006. At that time, the Redmond company was involved in the development of a new technology, designed to be implemented into the infrastructure of email services and to guarantee that the sender of a piece of mail was an actual user and not a bot. Gates went out on a limb and professed that, in just two year's time, spam would be a solved problem. Sure enough, not only is that not the case, but Gates' forecast is so far off, that it actually manages to describe the complete opposite situation of the end of 2007. And to make matters even worst, it even seems that the tendency is bound to accentuate in the coming year.
According to a report from security company Symantec related to the state of spam, issued in December 2007, the volumes of unsolicited emails continue only to increase. As of November 2007, three in four emails have been spam. "While Bill Gates' 2004 prediction that spam would be eradicated within two years clearly missed the mark, few expected spam's extraordinary resurgence in 2007. Since 2006, spam levels have steadily climbed from 56% of all email to an all-time high of 72% of email in the most recent month's report. Several spam 'firsts' were also marked in 2007, including usage of MP3s and videos and Google alerts and searches", Symantec revealed in a report put together under the supervision of Doug Bowers, Executive Editor Antispam Engineering.
According to Symantec, the flood of spam is on the increase, and the trend will only perpetuate itself into 2008. And not only will spam not subside, but actually spammers are coming up with new techniques to bypass anti-spam technology, from Image to Fraud and Scam spam. The volume of unsolicited emails grew from an average of 50% of all email traffic in 2005 to 59% in 2006, and now 72%.
"Image spam was on the forefront of this resurgence, causing anti-spam vendors to come up with new techniques to detect and block these new attacks. And the creative tactics didn't stop there. Spammers launched several spam 'firsts' throughout the year, including tactics using bot herders, audio and video files, and Google alerts and searches. They also explored different protocols and platforms such as Instant Messaging, SMS and even multi-player online games", Symantec added.