U.S. Tops Porn and Spam Proliferation

Awhile ago I mentioned an article that talked about how the United States was tops in SPAM and forwarding SPAM type email. Well, here we are again with a related article, and the United States ranks number one in another area – child porn sites!

Let’s take a look at the security side of this whole thing. Whether you are forwarding SPAM, or visiting porn sites, you are putting yourself (and others) at risk for a whole myriad of things, including the risk of being caught with illegal files on your computer and the proliferation of viruses. Besides being just plain disgusting, many porn sites contain malicious code that can install malware on your system, hijack your address book, and email infected messages to you and everyone you know. From there it is an endless cycle of being infected and trying to clean it all off of your system, getting re-infected, cleaning it off again, and on and on.

What – did you think the creators of porn sites were just a bunch of stupid sex addicts, pedophiles and womanizers? They use clever coding in their site pages, and employ crafty and malicious tactics to get more traffic to visit their sites. They generate revenue because they know that some desperate person will sign up and are a regular (often paying) visitor. But what about that single new customer (should we call these creeps “customers?”) who signs up? They now have an email address book that can be used to email malicious, if not disgusting emails to others. And those recipients have address books, and so on, and so on, and……. I think you get the picture. The actions of one potentially affect the many.

You already know my stance on mindlessly forwarding every single email you get. Not only does it fill up my email box, but in many instances you are sending me unsubstantiated garbage with half truths and bogus tales. But all that aside, I don’t need the viruses and malware, and I suspect neither does anyone else. All my ranting aside – if you are going to forward that stuff, at least do us all a favor and use an antivirus package that scans your emails and attachments. When the viruses are stopped, at least then the plethora of forwarded emails is a little easier to put up with.

What you do in the privacy of your own home is your business. But make sure your email address book doesn’t have my address in it, and please don’t send me any SPAM. I don’t need any pictures of wanna-be porn stars, and I don’t need the viruses.

More Information:

• NewsFactor Article: U.S. Struggles to Fight Online Child Porn
• NewsFactor Opinion: U.S. Tops Child Porn
• NewsFactor Article: U.S. Tops List of Global Spammers
• Cymru1.Net: Danger #4: Pornography and pedophiles
• St. Bernard Software: Protect Against Internet Threats
• Network World Article: Porn sites and spyware go hand in hand on the Web
• Informit.Com: Understanding Malware, Part 1