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Well it seems that any veracity that claim may have had (and I doubt it had any) is now long gone as the war between spammers and anti-spammers has escalated to a new level.

I refer of course to the latest tactic being used by these "hi-tech marketers" which involves spreading viruses that contain a payload designed to knock anti-spam websites and services off the face of the net.

The latest version of such viruses is W32-Mimail.D which directs a denial of service (DOS) attack at several anti-spam sites.

If ever there was a perfect example of cyberterrorism, this is it.

However, not only have spammers been using DOS attacks to try and knock out anti-spam sites, they've also resorted to other, equally evil skulduggery.

It seems that they've been doing Joe-jobs against some of the key anti-spam players and in some cases this has been effective in having providers pull the plug on their websites.

Here's a piece that makes interesting reading -- as does this report.

Clearly these spammers are not really the innocent marketers they claim to be but a bunch of crooks who'll do anything to get their sleazy, scam-laden junk email to our mailboxes.

So what can the anti-spam brigade do?

Well one option currently under consideration is that of automating the process of launching DOS attacks against spammers and the sites they advertise. Wired has a story on this proposal.

However I guess we have to ask ourselves -- do two wrongs make a right?

If this war keeps escalating at the current rate, will the Net soon undergo a catastrophic change from an "information superhighway" to a cyber-battlefield?

Would *any* legitimate traffic get through with all these DOS attacks echoing back and forth?

Perhaps the time has come for us to simply bite the bullet and throw out the existing email protocols in favour of a system that offers the mechanisms essential to curb the flow of spam.

There's no doubt that creating such a protocol is a whole lot simpler than waging a tit-for-tat war where filters, Joe-jobs, DOS-attacks, anti-spammers and spammers are embraced in a futile battle that can have no clear winner.

But how do we get Net users to switch to a new email protocol?

Well wouldn't the prospect of a spam-free (or at least greatly spam-reduced) intray be sufficient incentive?

So what's the hold-up? Why hasn't this been done already?

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