The internet has been fighting a battle with SPAM for what seems like ages. Initially, when personal emails were relatively new and spamming was taking baby steps, consumers were much more cautious about viruses and spam. This could have been due to the fact that people didn’t know a lot of how viruses work and how spam can cause damage which is why they feared such threats more. As user awareness grew people now believe they know everything about viruses and spam and think that the precautionary measures they take are enough to protect them from threats. This attitude leads to complacency and users end up underestimating the damage that spam can potentially cause.
In reality, spam has been accumulating on the web. It is highly possible that spam might end causing a virtual traffic jam, paralyzing the internet. Despite the availability of advanced bandwidth, time taken in the filtering of spam makes this null and void. While massive amounts are being spent towards research to develop technology that may help us to fight the fast paced growth of spam, it will take action on the part of each and every individual user to be able to effectively battle spam. Various laws being introduced in countries around the globe, like the CAN SPAM Act of the United States, have been more or less useless in preventing the unabated growth of spam.
As the internet is a common global space, truly without boundaries, the lack of effort on the part of a few countries negates the efforts of others. Spammers use such countries as a base to work out from without ever getting caught and the cycle of spam continues. Although a world association of countries against spam could be the solution, this is a near impossibility. For now, users need to effectively use the latest anti-spam or anti-virus software, don’t click on links that are suspicious and try to keep your website secure.
