Lots of people I know get really worked up about spam. For a long time I have to admit that I didn't get much spam, which was a bit odd really, given that for a very long time various email addresses of mine have been all over the net, still I guess I used to be a lot more careful about joining lists or the like. Now for the last 5 years or so I've been getting a lot of spam, the funny thing is though that it doesn't really bother me. Like anyone I do resent the time lost having to scan my emails, check the senders address and the subject (that's about all it takes for me to classify something as spam, since most of the mails I get are either tagged by a list or by a sender known to me) and delete the spam, but I can't help but feel that is just the way things are and in a funny kind of way, as it should be. I think the heart of my view on spam is quite simple and I feel logical. The Internet is a PUBLIC network. Think about that for a moment, it means that anyone has the right to use it. If you run a service on a public network, that implies that the public are allowed to use that service. So when I put it in those terms to myself I see no problem with people sending me email, as after all it's a service running on a public network, if I didn't want random public people to try and use it then I shouldn't be running it should I? Interestingly this ties into another argument that I've had over the years with various government agency types about different computer crime laws that was best summarized by me stating that if the law required you to have prior consent to making any changes to a system, then email would break that law and the smiling government agency person saying "I know, thus I can pull you in any time I want Ben for breaking the law". I finally realized then WHY they left the wording like they had. Still this is just one half of my thoughts on spam, the other half is the side of me thats job it is to stop such things.
When you work in security as long as I have you come to realise that there are very few ways, if not none, to stop someone determined enough doing something in the virtual world. I always put myself in the shoes of the spammers and thought "how would I bypass any anti-spam mechanism?" and in almost every case I could think of a way past it. Thus this article resonated with me quite strongly and made me smile. I'd like to think that there is at least a part of me that doesn't like beating my head against a brick wall.
