NY Times on “Spam 2.0″

A great article on the next generation of spam, including image spam, a focus here on Spamosphere.

Spam Doubles, Finding New Ways to Deliver Itself

NYtimes.com
By BRAD STONE
Published: December 6, 2006

Hearing from a lot of new friends lately? You know, the ones that write “It’s me, Esmeralda,” and tip you off to an obscure stock that is “poised to explode” or a great deal on prescription drugs.

You’re not the only one. Spam is back — in e-mail in-boxes and on everyone’s minds. In the last six months, the problem has gotten measurably worse. Worldwide spam volumes have doubled from last year, according to Ironport, a spam filtering firm, and unsolicited junk mail now accounts for more than 9 of every 10 e-mail messages sent over the Internet.

Spam morphs into multiple, shifty flavors

” “An estimated 62 billion spam messages per day choked e-mail systems in October – twice the volume of October 2005 – says security firm IronPort Systems.”

“There are an infinite number of variations of spam,” says Scott Petry, founder and chief technology officer at anti-spam manager Postini. “The only limit is the imagination of spammers.” “

- USA Today -