__/ [ Kelsey Bjarnason ] on Wednesday 14 March 2007 04:58 \__
> [snips]
>
> On Fri, 09 Mar 2007 07:15:31 -0800, The Ghost In The Machine wrote:
>
>> Except maybe actually moving mountains. :-) In any event,
>> spam can't do much, except clog one's inbox.
>
> Depends.
>
> Here's a spam. HTML. Contains a pretty little picture of some piece of
> nonsense. You view it, delete it, forget about it. Problem is, you're now
> nailed, in two different ways.
>
> First, you've now got a known, verified, working email address. Or, more
> to the point, _they_ have such an address for you.
>
> Second, unless you're behind a router, etc, they now have a confirmed IP
> address for your machine. Prime meat for a worm launch.
>
> The mechanism's pretty simple: just include an external link to an image,
> but don't just call it "image.jpg". Call it "01a37fb276.jpg". If the
> image gets loaded, the key - the filename part - tells the server what
> address the image was sent to, thus whose address is valid. Poof, you're
> pwned, even if only to be a verified recipient of endless more spam.
>
> Meanwhile, *someone* pays for the bandwidth, hassles, etc. For example,
> our ISP was spending about $20,000 per year *just* to do spam filtering,
> and the cost was going up.
Yes! And that last point is often overlooked. More human (time) and physical
(servers) resources elevate the price of using the Internet. Not to mention
the time that users /themselves/ spend handling SPAM that gets through, or
chasing legitimate E-mails that were lost. Even friendships and partnerships
can be ruined in this way (the latter case). I found E-mails from employers
in the BoxTrapper. Long overdue..
--
~~ Best wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Never awaking askew, no matter what they ask you
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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