MessageLabs predicts that spam will account for over 70 percent of e-mail traffic by April of 2004. Given that current antispam legislation is largely ineffective, the onus will continue to be on you and me to protect ourselves. . . .

2003 WAS SUPPOSED to be the year to end e-mail-borne viruses, given that both MS Outlook and antivirus apps have become much better at stopping them. But in 2004, I expect to see more of these pests, especially more spam-related ones like MiMail.l, as professional spammers continue using them both to collect e-mail addresses and to distribute their messages anonymously.

MiMail.l wasn't the first worm involved with junk e-mail. As early as January 2003, antivirus experts noticed a worm called Sobig was aiding the sending of spam. By early summer of 2003, there was evidence that Sobig was building a network of what are called open proxies, systems that act as blind intermediary portals to the Internet.

By the time the Sobig.f variant came along in mid-August, the open proxy network created by earlier variants helped Sobig.f infect over one million PCs worldwide in less than 24 hours, making it the fastest spreading computer virus or worm on record. The August infection further expanded the open proxy network, giving future variants the ability to spread even faster.

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