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Circular Breakout!
Ever wonder where spam comes from? In the old days, spammers would rent or buy their own Net access directly; the problem was, angry antispam geeks would track them down and complain to the ISPs, who would kick the spammers offline.
The next technique was to create “zombie” computers — to send out worms and viruses that infect everyday computers and instal spam-sending relays. This way, a spammer can create thousands or millions of zombies which he or she can use to send spam. I heard a lot about this back when I was writing my feature on virus-writers for the New York Times Magazine; police told me the spammers were potentially linked to organized crime in China and Russia. But everyone wondered precisely how many “zombie” victim computers there were.
Finally someone’s measuring it. Comcast, the Internet cable-access giant, has started tracking how many messages are sent out by their users. Sean Lutner, a network engineer, told CNET that Comcast users send out 800 million messages a day — but only 100 million go through the company’s official servers. The other 700 million other ones are thus probably spam sent out by Comcast users infected with spam relays. They probably don’t even know they’re doing it — yet according to those stats, the average American family is sending out six to seven pieces of spam a day.
How did they generate these statistics?
“It’s not rocket science,” John Levine, co-chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force’s antispam research group, said of this technique. “Basically, you count the mail, and you give everyone a quota. If Grandma usually sends six messages a day and now tries to send 10,000 messages a day, what are the odds that she made that many new friends?”
(Thanks to Slashdot for this one!)
I'm Clive Thompson, a writer on science, technology, and culture. This blog collects bits of offbeat research I'm running into, and musings thereon.
Currently, I'm a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired magazine. I also write for Fast Company and Wired magazine's web site, among other places. Email or AOL IM me (pomeranian99) to say hi or send in something strange!
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» visit the Collision Detection archives
September 26, 2008 » 01:57 PM
From an interview with ethnobotanist and anthropologist Wade Davis:
One of the cultures you celebrate in Light at the Edge of the World is the Inuit. What do you most admire about them?
Davis: The Inuit didn’t fear the cold; they took advantage of it. During the 1950s the Canadian government forced the Inuit into settlements. A family from Arctic Bay told me this fantastic story of their grandfather who refused to go. The family, fearful for his life, took away all of his tools and all of his implements, thinking that would force him into the settlement. But instead, he just slipped out of an igloo on a cold Arctic night, pulled down his caribou and sealskin trousers, and defecated into his hand. As the feces began to freeze, he shaped it into the form of an implement. And when the blade started to take shape, he put a spray of saliva along the leading edge to sharpen it. That’s when what they call the “shit knife” took form. He used it to butcher a dog. Skinned the dog with it. Improvised a sled with the dog’s rib cage, and then, using the skin, he harnessed up an adjacent living dog. He put the shit knife in his belt and disappeared into the night.
September 25, 2008 » 11:21 AM
“Video from a camp north of Toronto in December 2005 shows a car spinning around in a nearby, snow-covered parking lot. Prosecutors characterized that as special driver training but the defense, and many outsiders, said it was nothing more than “cutting doughnuts,” a favorite winter pastime of young Canadian motorists.” - A key piece of evidence submitted in the trial of a gang of alleged young Canadian terrorists.
September 24, 2008 » 11:21 PM
“Life imitates art imitating life: just thought a gnat crawling across my monitor was part of a Flash-based ad. I clicked it.” - A Tweet from Bill Braine.
September 24, 2008 » 02:37 PM
“Funniest FB friend request ever: “Twitter friend hoping to get to second base (Facebook!) ;-).”” - A recent Tweet by Pistachio
September 24, 2008 » 12:28 PM
Chinese powdered-milk crisis creates a new market: The return of the wet nurse
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