Hello everyone and welcome to ZD Tech, ZDNet’s daily editorial podcast. My name is Louis Adam and today I will explain to you why spam persists, more than 40 years after its invention.
Spam is almost as old as the internet, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Spam is the name we generally give to unwanted e-mails that pollute our e-mail boxes. The name comes from a famous Monty Python sketch parodying the heavy advertising techniques of a British ham brand. The contraction of “Spiced Ham” gives “SPAM”.
A great publicity stunt
The first occurrence of spam is generally dated to the end of the 70s. At the time, the Internet did not yet exist. Well, not in its current form. A first version of the network known as ARPANET nevertheless connects several thousand computers, generally owned by universities and academic research centers. But computing is already a business, and the possibility of sending e-mails gives ideas to a marketing manager of the company DEC, which sells models of computers.
In May 1978, he decided to send a message to 400 network users to invite them all to a presentation of his company’s new range of computers. The same e-mail sent to a large number of users, to praise the merits of a product whose recipients probably do not care: the reactions are rather negative, but the method still allows the company to sell some machines.
And this is the whole paradox of spam: if it is generally seen as a nuisance, the massive sending of marketing e-mails to users very often makes it possible to generate sales, for a very minimal cost. .
Over the years, the internet will gradually eclipse ARPANET and more and more users will connect to the network. And spam will become more important as the number of Internet users grows: in 2020, Kaspersky estimated that 50% of e-mails sent on the network could be qualified as spam. A conservative estimate, other sources suggesting a spam rate close to 80%.
The cat and the Mouse
However, techniques for combating this nuisance have evolved since the 1980s. E-mail service providers such as Gmail have developed powerful filters capable of identifying and blocking e-mails upstream, before they even reach your email inbox. Associations such as Spamhaus or France Signal Spam also work to identify and block organizations distributing unwanted e-mails.
But faced with this, cybercriminals are also developing new tools to send spam and bypass the filters in place. Spam remains profitable: it allows the distribution of advertising for regulated services and products, such as drugs, online casinos or pornography. Spam is also used to spread scams, phishing attempts or in some cases malware.
And as long as it continues to pay off, the game of cat and mouse is not about to stop. Especially since today, spam is no longer limited to e-mails: spam techniques can also be used for SMS, messaging software, or directly on the web.