Spam, spam, spam

From Jack Dausman

Been wondering why there’s so much more spam lately? Bet you’ve been thinking that those pesky Russians, or Chinese have been stoking up their servers and sending more and more spam our way? Well, actually, most spam, whilst it might eventually be traced back to Russia or China or even the good old US of A, is sent by zombies. Yes, really, although in computing terms they are referred to as botnets.

The interesting thing about the most recent spam flurry is the OS being run by the machines that are sending it. You may have thought that it’s the older, less secure OS’s that would predominate. But no, it’s actually Microsoft’s shining star, Windows XP….with, wait for it, Service Pack 2. Yup, that’s right, the service pack that was designed to stop all this malarkey.

So the lesson is, be vigilant. Keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware measures up to date (you have got some, haven’t you ?).
And keep an eye on your broadband router….if you’re not expecting it to be active, but the activity light’s merrily flashing away, then investigate.