Summary
A widely used technique of spammers is to
hide the destination of sites mentioned in their spam emails by using
confusing, obfuscated URLs. These are almost impossible for the human
eye to comprehend, yet still work in most web browsers. It is time for
web browser software developers to deny spammers of visitors to their
masked and disguised sites by refusing recognition of obfuscated URLs.
Furthermore, tracing features need to become
a standard function of web browsers, so that visitors to a site have
easy access to URL or IP traceroute, whois and other such information
about sites they visit. This will make the task for spam victims
wanting to report spammers to their connection and hosting providers
much easier, increasing the risks of termination to spammers.
In recent times, spammers have been making
greater use of viruses and trojans, sometimes infecting end-user
computers when they visit certain websites, to create "back-door"
mechanisms for sending spam from innocent persons machines. Web Browser
developers should increase the security features of browsers to block
suspicious or surreptitious downloads onto end-user machines from
websites visited.
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