A model-driven analysis of the effectiveness of technological anti-spam measures

Abstract

In Chap. 4 a broad range of technological anti-spam measures was presented, some of these already being widely applied while others are still on a conceptual or prototypic level. Up to now, we have been reasonably able to withstand spam e-mails and to use the Internet for regular communication, by deploying complementary anti-spam measures. However, statistics show a percentage of spam constituting more than 50% of all e-mails (see Sect. 2.2), and this rate is simply not acceptable. Even more serious, if we are to avert the danger of losing the Internet e-mail service in its capacity as a valuable, free, and worldwide medium of open communication, anti-spam activities should be performed more systematically than is currently the case with regard to the mainly heuristic anti-spam measures in place. A valuable step in this direction is the assessment of these measures in terms of theoretical and practical effectiveness. Having identified their potentials and limitations, we can better analyze which spamming options are successfully covered and which are still open to spammers. Furthermore, the analysis of the effectiveness of anti-spam measures might help to develop new holistic concepts or to combine existing measures into a bundle of anti-spam procedures which would enable the spam portion to be reduced enormously.