Lycos Europe halts anti-spam counterattacks
NEW YORK Just four days after it began, a spam-fighting campaign by Web portal Lycos Europe has been ended on the grounds the cure might be worse than the disease. Security experts labeled it a vigilante program potentially harmful to legitimate Web sites.
The program worked like this: Lycos offered free spam-fighting screensavers. When a computer running the screensaver was idle, the program sent bogus traffic to alleged spam sites, increasing their bandwidth costs.
Lycos said it monitored the sites to ensure they weren't entirely disabled.
The company says it's canceling the program because it was always meant to be temporary and has done its job of sparking discussion about fighting spam.
About 100-thousand people downloaded the free screensaver but the programs can no longer send the bogus traffic.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|
