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| Vardan Kushnir was found bludgeoned to death in
his Moscow apartment. |
According to media reports, Russian authorities are currently
investigating the murder of spammer Vardan Kushnir, a 35-year old
found bludgeoned to death in his Moscow apartment on Sunday
night.
Kushnir, who ran an American language centre in the capital, was
seen as Russia's most notorious spammer, accused of inundating
millions of internet users with unsolicited mail inviting them to
attend English classes at his centre.
Several media reports suggest that many Russian computer users
were frustrated with the centre's spam campaign. In August 2003,
Sophos reported on
Russian Deputy Communications Minister Andrei Korotkov being so
enraged by the amount of spam he was receiving from the centre, he
launched a counter-attack: unsolicited phone calls. The American
language centre's office manager, Natalya Petrova, reported that
they were bombarded with more than 1000 automated phone calls in a
single morning.
"If Kushnir was murdered as a result of sending unsolicited
spam, Russian law-makers might want to reconsider their current
computer crime legislation," said Carole Theriault, security
consultant at Sophos. "Rather than consider taking the law into
their own hands, email users annoyed with unsolicited mail should
consider blocking it at their email gateway - an infinitely easier,
more effective and legal way of getting rid of spam."
Russia does have fundamental computer crime legislation in
place, though reports claim there are none dealing specifically
with spam legislation. Despite this, Russia managed to convict a
teenaged university student for sending spam. The unnamed student
was accused of hacking into one of Russia's biggest mobile phone
networks and sending obscene spam to 15,000 mobile phones in June
2004. Media reports state that he received a one-year suspended
sentence and ordered to pay a $100(USD) fine.
The investigation continues.
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