Anti-Spam Screensaver Hits Hard
Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 10:15 am
"A plan to bump up the bandwidth bills of spammers seems to be getting out of control.
Earlier this week Lycos Europe released a screensaver that bombards spam websites with data to try to increase the cost of running such sites.
But analysis shows that, in some cases, spam websites are being completely overwhelmed by the traffic being directed their way.
The Lycos plan has also come under fire for encouraging vigilantism.
Attack pattern
Lycos Europe's "Make love not spam" campaign was intended as a way for users to fight back against the avalanche of junk mail messages coming their way.
Participants were encouraged to download the Lycos screensaver which, when their PC was idle, would then send lots of data traffic to websites that peddle the goods and services mentioned in spam messages."
Earlier this week Lycos Europe released a screensaver that bombards spam websites with data to try to increase the cost of running such sites.
But analysis shows that, in some cases, spam websites are being completely overwhelmed by the traffic being directed their way.
The Lycos plan has also come under fire for encouraging vigilantism.
Attack pattern
Lycos Europe's "Make love not spam" campaign was intended as a way for users to fight back against the avalanche of junk mail messages coming their way.
Participants were encouraged to download the Lycos screensaver which, when their PC was idle, would then send lots of data traffic to websites that peddle the goods and services mentioned in spam messages."
hadn\'t heard about that! Sounds good, but a pain if you only have limited bandwidth on your isp 
I like it!