The Washington Post is reporting that a major Web-hosting firm, which is considered responsible for huge amounts of spam, has been taken offline. The company, McColo, located in California, “serves as a U.S. staging ground for international firms that sell a variety of items, including counterfeit pharmaceuticals and child pornography”, and was responsible for 75% of all spam sent from the US, according to the Post. They claim that McColo “ceased operations after two Internet providers blocked Web access.”
Computer security experts have been pointing the finger at McColo for a very long time, and claim that US authorities should have investigated this company a long time ago. But hosting companies are not liable for activities carried out on their networks, with the exception of copyright violations and child pornography. However, published reports by security researchers that McColo was running spam botnets convinced the two major companies that provided Internet access to McColo to pull the plug.
While spam may drop off in the coming days and weeks, it is unlikely that this will have a major effect on spam globally. Much spam is sent from countries with little oversight, like China, and plenty of other companies will step up and fill the vacuum left by McColo.
