November 14, 2008 - (HOSTSEARCH.COM) - The closure of a single web host has dramatically reduced global levels of spam, a number of sources reported recently. An investigation by the Washington Post’s Internet Security correspondent, Mr. Brian Krebs, isolated web host McColo Corporation as a key source of all “malicious traffic”.
According to email security provider and anti-spam firm Ironport, McColo’s closure saw spam levels drop by up to 70%. "It is an unprecedented drop but will be a temporary outage as the networks move from North America to places where there is less scrutiny," said Ironport spokesman Jason Steer was reported as saying.
The Washington Post investigation took 4 months to uncover McColo, whose clients are suspected of running “botnets” - networks of computers designed to spread spam. Botnets are responsible for the bulk of spam sent as email, some sources suggest.
San Jose, California-based McColo had provided dedicated and virtual hosting alongside collocation services. Despite it being necessary to gather considerable evidence to shut down a web host, the weight of what Hurricane Electric was presented with meant the company took less than an hour to decide to shut McColo down. “We looked into it a bit, saw the size and scope of the problem . . . Within the hour, we had terminated all of our connections to them," Hurricane Electric’s Director of Marketing Benny Ng was reported as saying.
Despite global elation at the reduction in spam levels, as Ironport’s Jason Steer pointed out, McColo’s closure might only offer a temporary respite. Given the enormous profits that can be garnered from the activity, spammers will simply find alternative sources from which to operate. Given the effort involved in turning a profit, however, spammers should be applauded for their tenacity. Success ratios are apparently in the region of 1-in-12.5 million emails, meaning a spammer must send 12.5 millions spam emails to get a single positive response. Some sources have suggested that as a result of spammers’ efforts, over 80% of all email sent is in fact spam.
