Spam Study by Networking Group Featured in New York Times

^{May 20, 2011}
In a study featured in the New York Times, ICSI, UC Berkeley, and UC San Diego researchers found that just three banks authorize 95 percent of credit card sales of goods advertised through spam. The study measured the spam-based business cycle from the sending of unwanted email to the delivery of goods. Christian Kreibich, Nicholas Weaver, and Vern Paxson, with researchers at UC San Diego and UC Berkeley, visited 6 million spam-advertised Web sites and made over 100 purchases of items such as over-the-counter medicine and replica goods in order to understand the economy of spam-based sales. The research suggests spam-based profits could be significantly reduced if credit card-issuing banks refused to settle transactions authorized by banks identified as spam business supporters. The findings will be presented at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy next week. Read the paper here >>