Damage Caused by Spam
Why is it necessary to combat spam? Spam started a number of years ago with modest advertising mailings, which over time, have developed into a serious technical, economic and even social threat. Communications overload. Spam blocks communication channels and creates traffic which has to be paid for by either the provider or the user (or the employer in the case of a company). According to estimates by Alexander Ivanov, the President of the Russian Association of Networks and Services, three years ago Internet operators lost $55 million from the damage caused by spam. This figure represents traffic expenses alone. Additionally, there are mail servers which receive and process spam, and these servers have to be maintained by highly-paid specialists. Therefore there are substantial infrastructure running costs also. Waste of time. If spam reaches a user’s inbox, a recipient has to delete it manually. A person who reads 10-20 emails per day may receive in the region of 160-180 spam messag