Aplus.net Blog

A number of newspapers are reporting that the amount of spam flooding inboxes worldwide has dropped by about 70 percent over the past week.

The reason for the drop? The Kansas City Star attributes it to Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs, whose recent expose on the McColo Corp., a San Jose, California-based company responsible for hosting many of the biggest spam offenders, led to that company’s Internet providers pulling the plug on McColo’s access. (The Los Angeles Times gives credit to the actual researchers who exposed McColo, whose findings Krebs publicized.)

So, almost five years after Bill Gates’ famous declaration that email spam would be stamped out within two years, the industry finally seems on the verge of discovering how to fight the menace at its roots. And that’s cause for celebration for online businesses and consumers alike; but, as the Kansas City Star asks, why was the victory delivered by the private sector, instead of the government?

“Krebs’ success raises a question,” reads the editorial in today’s Kansas City Star. “If a reporter, with assistance from e-mail security firms, can locate the source of the Internet’s most nefarious spam traffic and knock it off the Web, what is law enforcement doing?”

The fact that the drop in spam is not mandated by a government crackdown is leading many to speculate that it will be short-lived. “Few expect the relief to last,” writes the Los Angeles Times’ Joseph Menn. “The major anti-virus firm Symantec Corp. predicted a return to the previous level by Christmas.”

Regardless, even a temporary drop in email spamming levels is a welcome development for online business, with the un-cluttering of inboxes and lowering of virus risks some of the more obvious benefits.