Blocking spam at the client level is relatively easy by being disciplined with how you deal with received messages, and by being discrete with how you share your address online. And yes, there are plenty of free tools that will help you manage what you do receive.
The real problem I see it is the load that the relentless onslaught of spam is placing on the infrastructure of the Internet. Add the billions of messages bouncing around to the advent of bandwidth hogs like Youtube, the network tv sites, etc and you have a system that is growing in requirements at an exponential pace.
The fact that the Internet stands up to the demands placed on it, without much more than very scattered regional outages and congestion issues, has to be the #1 technological marvel today.
Given that the technology to exploit and potentially bring the whole thing down is running in the shadows via botnets and the ability to run coordinated attacks, makes for the uneasy truce. Truthfully, when you get excited that projects like the Folding@Home project involving Playstation 3’s are harnessing unused computing cycles for good, you need to realize that the concept has been in play for many additional years by the bad guys.
I really do feel that at some point a WMD attack on the US economy will be perpetrated using home computers, media centers and console gaming systems. Feed a bit of malicious instruction into them and let it sleep until you’re ready to unleash all manner of havoc on an increasingly Internet-dependent economy.
Not to dismiss border security outright, or to sound Luddite, but the real danger to the US is through turncoat technology. Imagine the danger that sheer traffic poses to all of us. Get all the machines talking at once and the Internet crashes. Doesn’t matter what they’re saying or who they’re talking to. Just get ‘em shouting and it all comes down. Doesn’t matter if you’re blocking it at your door, because the pipe will eventually get so clogged that all traffic will stop.
See where I’m headed? The expertise and equipment to handle this type of attack won’t show up under UN inspection, it doesn’t cost but a tiny fraction compared to traditional WMD programs, and it doesn’t need to move to within physical proximity of the intended target.
Unplug the Internet and we’ll all “bombed back to the stone ages.”
So very true. I'm a little surprised that the network wide doomsday scenario you laid out hasn't happened yet. Apparently the terrorists aren't yet into creating 'botnets'. As soon as they learn to use them as the spammers have, then God help us. As you said, all it takes is the placement of dormant code to lie in wait for the 'go command' from the source. No one really knows how large a botnet has gotten. Some have been found to number in the thousands of 'infected' host computers. As a matter of fact, most of the mail we block originates from 'owned' windows machines, coming from what are obviously residential broadband hostnames. If someone is very patient, as the terrorists are known to be, they could grow and expand a massive botnet over a long period of time. From what I understand, it doesn't even require a great deal of knowledge to get a botnet up and running.
Interesting info Here