Robert Soloway could receive a considerable prison sentence.
IT security and control firm Sophos has welcomed the news that a
notorious spammer has pleaded guilty to offences in a US court, and
reminded businesses of the importance of securing their email
defenses from attack.
28-year old Robert Soloway, pleaded guilty to charges of fraud,
e-mail fraud (under the CAN-SPAM Act), and failure to file an
income tax return. When initially arrested he had faced a total of
40 charges.
Prosecutors claim that Soloway sent more than 90 million emails
in three months from just two of the many servers he used around
the world. Investigators claim that he made in more than four years
over $1 million by sending out many millions of junk emails.
Soloway also admitted to offering clients a service capable of
sending 80 million emails on their behalf.
"It's unlikely that Joe Public is likely to notice any drop in
the level of spam in their inbox tomorrow morning. However,
anything which sends a clear message to the computer underground
that spamming will not be tolerated has to be good news for all
internet users," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "We need more convictions of
hackers and spammers in order to deter others from following in the
footsteps of people like Soloway."
Sophos experts countries around the world to work more closely
together to fight the global problem of junk email.
"Spammers put a lot of effort into hiding their tracks on the
internet, but we are seeing more and more arrests. Earlier this
year Sophos reported on a man being arrested in
Tokyo after allegedly sending 2.2 billion junk emails. This was
the first time that a suspected spammer has been arrested in
Japan," explained Cluley. "We need to see more countries around the
world taking firm action against those who abuse the internet, to
really begin to make a dent on the problem. We also need consumers
to stop buying goods advertised via spam messages."
Soloway is due to be sentenced on 20 June 2008. He could receive
a maximum sentence of 20 years for fraud, five years for e-mail
fraud and one year for not filing an income tax return.
Late last year, a Sophos survey
revealed that 11 percent of computer users admit to having
purchased goods sold via spam.
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can defend businesses
from the threats of spam, spyware, hackers and viruses.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.