By Tom Kirkham
The demise of Blue Security is a stark warning to the IT industry that trying to spam spammers is like fighting fire with fire. The Israeli anti-spam firm called it a day after a Russian spammer launched denial of service attacks against practically every organisation associated with the firm.
Blue Security's tactic was to encourage its members to report every spam email they received. The firm would then contact the spammers, often multiple times, to request the removal of members' email addresses, in an attempt to give spammers a taste of their own medicine.
But while the company was initially lauded for its approach, it was inevitable that retribution would be forthcoming. What exactly did Blue Security expect to happen? Blue Security was attacking organised criminals - a move that is hardly likely to elicit an apology and an assurance that it won't happen again. On top of this, spammers can draw upon far greater resources than most companies, by virtue of the fact that they operate outside of the law!
Let's face it, combating the spam problem doesn't require a company to go round pretending to be Dirty Harry - it requires continued education to persuade people from replying to unsolicited email. At the end of the day, how ever annoying it may be to receive a stream of emails offering improved manhood or investment opportunities in Uzbekistan, the Blue Security incident has surely demonstrated that the consequences of retaliation are far worse than the hassle of hitting the delete button.
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