The Dangers of SPAM Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Dangers of SPAM - Research Paper Example They even explained an abbreviation for the respective concept that is Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE). 2. Overview of Spam 2.1 Origin of Spam Fletcher stated that the first act of spam is considered to have taken place in 1978 when Gary Turk sent email messages to 400 people via the ARPANET; the purpose of the email was to promote his latest computing invention. Later, the term ‘spam’ originated from a Monty Python sketch that included few individuals singing the brand name of a canned meat ‘spam’ in a cafeteria in the 1980s. This is the instance after which the word became common and started being used other than the name of the brand. One of the most notorious initial spamming activities was initiated by two lawyers, Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel. They sent emails to around 6000 recipients to advertise their services for Green Card processing. Their actions were highly resented and were replied with hate emails from the recipients. The concept of spammin g caught on after the initial acts of resistance and became common from the late 1990s. According to Fletcher, the concept has intervened so deeply into the internet that it comprises of almost 78% emails from a total of 210 billion emails everyday around the world. Spammers have always managed to find their way around the spam filters and other detection software as they have learned the strategies and mechanics that are adopted by such software. Figure 1: Frequency of spam emails in different countries (Humphries) 2.2 Historical Approaches to End Spam Due to the absence of sophisticated spam filters in 1990s, simple techniques were used to fight spam. Zdziarski explained some of them in the following manner: Primitive Language Analysis: The messages were scanned for certain phrases like â€Å"Call Now†, â€Å"Free Trial† etc to find spam emails. This technique identified the spam messages on the basis of its content. Blacklisting: Paul Vixie devised a mechanism in wh ich the spammers were maintained in a list and the users were given the opportunity to ignore messages from them. This technique identified the spam messages on the basis of the origin and sender. 3. Types of Spam There are numerous types of spam prevailing on the web in the current times, some of the most common ones are: 3.1 Email Spam Bowers, Harnett and Edwards stated that email spam is used to advertise different products and services to a large segment of consumers by sending bulk emails. Numerous types of products and services are included in this category, such as financial services, products, health services, travel promotions etc. Many email spam are also sent with the aim of acquiring personal information of the users to pursue different kinds of fraudulent activities; such attempts are known as ‘phishing’. 3.2 Text Messages Spam Spamming activities also prevail on the wireless communication technology of cell phones. This medium often proves to cost the reci pient some amount if his package charges for the incoming of the text messages. Cell phone users suffer similar type of spam as the internet users, such as promotion of products and services and attempted scams. However, in the category of text messages, the recipient also receives lot of spam from the telecom service providers themselves in the form of promoting their latest campaigns. This might