Size and Cost of the Problem Steve Atkins SpamCon Foundation Word to the Wise

So… How bad is it? 4% don’t find spam annoying 96% find it annoying, or worse That’s 161,000,000 US end users Or 628,000,000 end users worldwide

End users are really annoyed AOL users reported 4,000,000 pieces of spam on February 20 th On March 5 th, they reported 5,500,000 pieces of spam

It’s going to get worse - AOL

More , more spam

More , yet more spam

Ridiculous amounts of spam

What does it cost? $30-50/yr in direct costs to every end user

What does it cost? $30-50/yr in direct costs to every end user $730/yr in lost productivity for every employee

What does it cost? $30-50/yr in direct costs to every end user $730/yr in lost productivity for every employee $8,900,000,000/yr total cost to US corporations

Receiving spam costs? $30-50/yr in direct costs to every end user $730/yr in lost productivity for every employee $8,900,000,000/yr total cost to US corporations $650,000,000 this year in anti-spam and content filtering products

Receiving spam costs? $30-50/yr in direct costs to every end user $730/yr in lost productivity for every employee $8,900,000,000/yr total cost to US corporations $650,000,000 this year in anti-spam and content filtering products $1-2/spam in lost productivity

Costs to a spammers ISP? A dialup provider estimates $2,000 - $10,000 to deal with a single spamming dialup customer

Costs to a spammers ISP? A dialup provider estimates $2,000 - $10,000 to deal with a single spamming dialup customer A large end user ISP estimates $8 to handle each incoming complaint

Costs to a spammers ISP? A dialup provider estimates $2,000 - $10,000 to deal with a single spamming dialup customer A large end user ISP estimates $8 to handle each incoming complaint A large end user ISP may receive hundreds of thousands or millions of complaints a month

Profits to the spammer The spam-related pornography business is estimated at $3,200,000,000 in 2002 The Arizona AG seized $30,000,000 from one “grow 1-3 inches” spam group Around 70% of spam has illegal content

Al Ralsky

200 mailservers

Al Ralsky 200 mailservers 140,000,000 / hour

Al Ralsky 200 mailservers 140,000,000 / hour 3,360,000,000 / day

Al Ralsky 200 mailservers 140,000,000 / hour 3,360,000,000 / day 23,520,000,000 / week

Al Ralsky 200 mailservers 140,000,000 / hour 3,360,000,000 / day 23,520,000,000 / week 1,226,400,000,000 / year

Al Ralsky 1,226,400,000,000 / year At $1/spam that’s Nearly 5 years output of the US mint A pile of dollar bills a third of the way to the moon Nearly one fifth of the US national debt A line of dollar bills from the earth to the sun a quarter of the way back

A Fre Provider 80% of incoming mail blocked at the router Cost of spam still nearly $12,000/mo

A Fre Provider 80% of incoming mail blocked at the router Cost of spam still nearly $12,000/mo If the IP based blocking weren’t used then the cost of spam would increase to $180,000 - $324,000/mo

A Hosting Provider A spammer providing $9,500/mo revenue

A Hosting Provider A spammer providing $9,500/mo revenue Initial blacklisting blocks $16,500/mo of innocent customers

A Hosting Provider A spammer providing $9,500/mo revenue Initial blacklisting blocks $16,500/mo of innocent customers Second stage blacklisting blocks $38,500/mo of innocent customers

Indirect Costs 15% of solicited doesn’t reach recipients mailboxes Mail blocking by imperfect mail filters causes significant losses to legitimate business use of The deluge of spam also causes significant losses

In Summary There’s a lot of spam It’s causing massive costs It’s getting worse It’s going to keep getting worse until the problem is alleviated or the mail system collapses

That’s all, folks! Steve Atkins (follow the whitepapers link)