Kaspersky shares insights about global spam network
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 26 March 2010, 18:26 IST
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Bangalore: Kaspersky Lab has announced the publication of an informative article by Maria Namestnikova that explores the relationship between spam and the global economy. The article looks at how spam has developed into a fully-fledged industry that expands and contracts in synch with the global economy. This view is given credence by the fact that the client/spammer relationship adheres to the same set of business principles that any legitimate commercial undertaking would. It also means that the spam industry is as susceptible to changes in the health of the national and international economy as any other industry, legitimate or otherwise. The author uses the example of the global financial crisis to demonstrate this dependency. The downturn in spam activity during August 2008, and again in October of the same year, followed exactly the same curve as the global economy. The economic downturn had led, unsurprisingly, to swaging cuts in the spam advertising budgets of small and medium-sized businesses. Not every area of spam-based adverting took such a hit though. Spam advertising the chance to rent or buy real estate, primarily office space vacated by the previous tenants, went into overdrive. The amount of this type of spam is usually insignificant because the majority of real estate agencies are established companies that would not consider using the services of the spammer. Maria's article also examines why January 2009 saw the start of a significant increase in the level of spam advertising the services of the spammers themselves. Although this type of spam had always existed, it had never been pushed quite as aggressively as it was during the crisis period. The article concludes by stating that the recovery of the spam industry reflects the general recovery in the economy as a whole.

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