Some good news on the spam front this month: worldwide spam was cut in half when a single web hosting firm was shut down, The Washington Post reported. McColo Corp, a company based in San Jose, California (but claiming a Delaware mailing address), allegedly operated servers that sent spam messages for various international groups. These clients, in turn, were behind activities ranging from managing compromised computers to selling fake drugs and other goods online. When the plug was finally pulled by McColo’s Internet providers, security researchers reported a drop in spam traffic that ranged from 60 to 75 percent across the globe.

It seems amazing that a single firm can be responsible for so much spam traffic. Security researchers have been watching McColo and collecting evidence of wrongdoing for over a year, and they were the ones who eventually brought the evidence to McColo’s ISPs and asked for the shutdown. U.S. law enforcement officials aren’t giving statements about the case or about the potential repercussions for McColo’s spamming actions. After all, firms like McColo provide a service, and they frequently claim ignorance when a client misuses that service, making them tough to blame for annoyances like spam traffic. Shutting them down is frequently difficult, because as frustrating as spam is, it isn’t illegal. In this case, McColo might have broken no laws, and they haven’t been charged with any crime. The spam decrease, however, is a welcome change for the companies and consumers who monitor its traffic. 

Of course, the respite won’t last; experts caution that the slowdown in spam is only temporary because other servers will start taking up the slack. In fact, you might have noticed your spam inbox filling up once again with the usual assortment of ads and scams. But we can take some hope from this case, at least. Everyone from the security professional to the average consumer is fed up with spam, and finally, some steps are being taken to help curtail it. Perhaps more pressure from a frustrated community could help to shut down additional spam servers worldwide, or perhaps a “Do Not Spam” list will eventually be created to spare our accounts from the onslaught. With annoying sales pitches, false advertising and identity-stealing scams peppering our email accounts daily, a change can’t come too soon.  

Sources for this article: The Washington Post. Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net.