Global Spam Levels Drop

Global spam levels dropped dramatically after McColo, a northern California hosting company, was cut off on November 11.

Some experts estimated that McColo hosted the machines responsible for 75% of the global junk email traffic sent. The relief is expected to be temporary for those trying to stop the unwanted email, since other servers will likely be found to send out the spam.

The story was covered by numerous sources including the Washington Post, who initially broke the story. Here's an excerpt:

"Also unclear is the extent to which McColo could be held legally responsible for the activities of the clients for whom it provides hosting services. There is no evidence that McColo has been charged with any crime, and these activities may not violate the law.

Mark Rasch, a former cyber crime prosecutor for the Justice Department and managing director of FTI Consulting in Washington, D.C.,. said Web hosting providers are generally not liable for illegal activity carried out on their networks, except in cases involving copyright violations and child pornography. "

Others who covered the story included BBC News and ComputerWorld.  

The BBC reported, "Anti-spam firm Ironport has seen junk mail levels drop by 70% since McColo was taken offline on 11 November.... A recent study by computer scientists from the University of California, Berkeley and UC, San Diego (UCSD) found that spammers manage to turn a profit despite only getting one response to every 12.5m emails they send."

It will be very interesting to see if the amount of spam sent return to previous levels - and how fast it happens. In Michigan, we have seen a steady increase in the amount of email we block over the past few years. We were blocking over 90% of incoming email due to spam or viruses, but I'll let you know if that number drops significantly in coming months.

What did you see happening last week? Did spam numbers drop in your enterprise?