IT and security control firm Sophos is urging internet users to
take the Sophos Spam Pledge and put an end to the significant
problems that many businesses face on a daily basis, as spam marks
its 30th anniversary today. The first ever spam message was sent on
1st May 1978 by Gary Thuerk, a marketing representative at the
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), to 393 users of ARPANET.
Recent Sophos research showed that 95 percent of all email is
spam, indicating that the spam crisis has reached new levels -
SophosLabs discovers one new spam-related webpage every three
seconds. With this in mind, Sophos experts are appealing to
internet users, advising them to resist clicking on spam links, in
the hope that spam will not reach its next landmark anniversary. A
recent
survey conducted by the firm revealed that a worrying 11
percent of people admit to having bought good via spam.
"Users are always just a click away from spam - from weight loss
medications to drugs used to improve sexual performance, spam is a
burden on all of us," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant at Sophos. "What's worse is that a lot of
spam is deliberately malicious today, aiming to steal your bank
account information or install malware. People who buy goods sold
via spam are merely perpetuating the problem of junk email for all
users and must be stopped."
Sophos Spam Pledge from
Sophos Labs on Vimeo.
"Gary Thuerk could never have imagined what he was starting when
he sent that mass email 30 years ago. There is a generation of
people today who have never worked in a world without spam clogging
up their inboxes," continued Cluley. "The internet community needs
to do what it can to make sure that spam doesn't celebrate a 40th
or 50th birthday. That means educating the public about never
buying goods sold via spam. If you receive an unsolicited email
message advertising goods to you - don't buy, don't try, don't
reply."
To mark spam's 30th anniversary, Sophos has created a Facebook
Group titled 'The Sophos Spam Pledge - "I won't
buy goods advertised via spam"', and released a YouTube video of people taking
the oath, promising never to click on links in unsolicited
emails.
To find out more about the Sophos Spam Pledge, and to show your
allegiance, visit: http://www.sophos.com/pledge
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can control network
access and defend against the threats of spam, hackers, spyware 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.