Spam... Spam... Everwhere SPAM!

Now to be clear, I am not referring to the King of Canned meats... No I am referring to the much more exasperating invention of the 1990's.  Yep SPAM emails, or is it email SPAM... potato, potahto... either way I hang my head in shame today as yesterday I had one of my email accounts compromised. Now I know I'm not the first, to have had such a thing happen, but for someone that considers himself somewhat of a Geek, that is Geek not Hacker (I am nowhere near dedicated enough) it is still embarrassing.

The interesting thing I found was the book that I was reading, "Daemon", had a short side story that was related to SPAM.  It was a headline in national news (in the book) that stated "8000 Murdered, all victims were known Spammers, SPAM down 80%".  So I'm not saying spammers should be killed or anything but it did get me thinking.  Not only do I want revenge on this puke that hacked my email account, but more importantly, why are we reacting to SPAM and other malicious types of technology attacks by sitting on our hands? 

This is the first change in the way I was thinking of SPAM.  Is it, or is it not an attack on that person?  And if so then with it being as proliferate as it is, it is an attack on society.  Okay so now I am at war... what do I do?  This was the second 'light bulb moment".  Thinking back to the 12 and 13th century I have this picture of a castle under siege.  But instead of defending with weapons, they are putting all their effort into rebuilding the walls (firewall) that are battered by catapults and only "deleting" (spam filters/anti-virus apps) the attackers that make it in to the castle.  Eventually you know that castle is going to be overrun.  No when a castle was under siege they defended with arrows and other weapons that kept the attackers at bay and when the attackers got too close they would use boiling tar and oil.

So as I see it, if we keep sitting on our hands we will lose this war.  With that in mind I suggest that any and all of you that have an interest in this new way of looking at SPAM to reach out to me and see if we can come up with a way to make the spammers pay?  Make it less profitable, more difficult or just impossible. I've got some ideas, but would love to hear yours.

That's all for now, oh except...  To the Ottawa city workers that cleaned the streets overnight,  Thank you!  You all did a fantastic job!