Have you noticed your mailbox is a lot less full recently?
Perhaps you’re not receiving quite so many offers for fifteen minute college degrees, prescription medicine, or suspiciously cheap software?
It’s not just your imagination. Worldwide spam fell by sixty percent since Tuesday, when American regulators moved to shut down a rogue ISP in California.
The shutdown came after researchers tracking spam were able to show that McColo Corporation was involved in spamming and other criminal activity.
The company has been linked to Russian criminal gangs, and to botnets, which hijack the computers of unwary users.
A botnet is believed to be responsible for an attack with manipulated the share price of United Airlines in September.
The holiday won’t last though. One expert predicts the unwanted clutter in your email inbox will return to normal levels by Christmas.
And there are unlikely to be any charges or criminal convictions as a result of the shutdown, as many of those involved are not based in the USA.
Still, it’s nice to know that it is possible to tackle spam.
Maybe an international effort is something the G20 leaders might devote five minutes to after they’ve sorted out the world financial crisis.
