Computers

Microsoft is accusing the defendants of violating a new antispam law by spoofing their domains, routing e-mail through open proxies, deceiving customers with misleading subject lines and failing to include unsubscribe options in their e-mails.

Two scourges -- viruses and spam -- are the most vexing e-mail issues for CIOs, according to a survey conducted by Ferris Research Inc. and Computerworld. Regulatory compliance isn't far behind.

Here's a look at different technologies companies such as Wyndham International have used to solve their spam problems.

Spam reports from America Online members dropped from a daily average of almost 11 million in November 2003 to a daily average of about 2.2 million last month, the company said this week.

The technology hasn't been widely adopted, but spammers are taking it up at a faster rate than legitimate e-mailers.

America Online and Yahoo plan to begin using technology to verify the source of e-mail messages in coming months as both companies work to stop spam e-mail.

An industry organization representing heavyweight e-mail providers Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp., America Online Inc. and EarthLink Inc. released recommendations yesterday for ending spam e-mail.

America Online Inc. has decided not to fully support Microsoft's Sender ID spam-fighting plan citing intellectual property concerns from the Internet Engineering Task Force and the open-source community.

While IP addresses in the U.S. made up just 28% of the spam-sending addresses in a survey by CipherTrust Inc., those addresses sent out much more unsolicited commercial e-mail than spammers from other nations.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Wolle awarded what is believed to be the largest spam judgment ever to Robert Kramer, an ISP owner who had accused three companies of sending his 5,000 customers millions of pieces of spam in 2003.

Savvis Communications, one of the world's largest ISPs, said it is terminating service to about 40 of its customers who have been using its networks for spamming purposes.

Classifying e-mail as "good" or "junk" before it's sent to be scanned by spam filters could speed up the delivery of legitimate e-mail, according to a paper presented today at the 2004 Usenix Annual Technical Conference.