Members of our nominating committee explain why they chose spam, cybercrime and all the other online bad stuff to be included among their personal “7 Wonders of the Internet.”
Ken Diliberto: Server and network power. Isn’t it amazing how well the Internet works even though 99.99999% of the ‘Net traffic is spam? It’s a wonder that mail still gets delivered.
John Gog: Spam – You didn’t say these had to be good things. Spam is a marvel. It’s the kudzu of the Internet. The fact that the most prolific use of bandwidth and e-mail resources is junk mail boggles the mind. We keep hearing that it will decline, yet it continues to increase as ever more gullible users hit the Internet.
Derek Rainwater: Spam, adware, spyware, malware, Trojans, etc. (Much more danger than the common user would ever believe or be prepared to prevent.)
Bob Brown: Cybercriminals: Putting old fashioned crooks like Jesse James and Al Capone to shame with their cleverness and deviousness.
Alan Portman: Spam. Spam? I hear you ask. Yes spam. I have had an e-mail address for about fifteen years. I remember one of the first “mass postings” to all of the Usenet user groups. Yes the guy was flamed, but he made sales. If spam were not effective, it would stop being used. So, as long as you will send somebody money for fake Viagra or buy a stock in a company that can’t spell, spam will be with us.
(Return to next slide: “For sale”)
