Collapse of anti-spam company under spammer's attack spurs effort to convince computer users to secure their computers.

San Francisco, CA, USA, May 22, 2006 -- The collapse of anti-spam company Blue Security's Blue Frog service following an attack by a notorious spammer last week has led to an unexpected outcome: the launching of a new initiative to get computer users to secure their computers.

The Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy (ISIPP) announced today the launch of their "Take Back the Net" initiative, a direct result of the drama which played out between Blue Security and the spammer known as "PharmaMaster" who DDOSed them last week. A DDOS, short for "distributed denial of service" attack, occurs when someone causes many different computers to all bombard the same website or computer with data at the same time. This causes the target site or computer to be unable to function properly under the increased load, often knocking them completely off the Internet.

Blue Security, along with their blog host, registrar, and even their own customers, endured a relentless series of such attacks as PharmaMaster commanded an army of hijacked computers to attack their sites in retaliation for their anti-spam efforts.

Blue Security yesterday announced that they were closing down their anti-spam service as a result of the attacks. While many are outraged by this turn of events, ISIPP's CEO explains that it should be considered a learning opportunity.

"The question which we must ask ourselves is "How has one person been able to cause so much destruction?" And the answer is "Because millions of people allowed him to do so - by not securing their computers"," explained Anne P. Mitchell, President and CEO of the Institute, and a professor of law in California.

Unsecured computers can become compromised and hijacked when they are infected by worms, viruses, trojans, and spyware.

"But it's so easy and inexpensive to protect your computer from these things, it's unconscionable that people don't do it," said Mitchell.

Computer owners have a variety of reasons for not securing their computers, including that they think it is too complicated to do, or that they only need to worry about it if their computer starts acting "funny". But they're wrong.

"Thousands of compromised PCs are churning out millions of pieces of spam - right now - while you are reading this. And their owners have no idea that it's happening," said Mitchell.

That's why ISIPP launched the "Take Back the Net" campaign. Sporting a twist on the well-known "ribbon campaigns" with its computer cable ribbon logo, "Take Back the Net" is an effort to educate and convince computer users that they must secure their computers, and that it's easy to do. ISIPP believes that with the right momentum, the initiative can help to repel spammers and phishers who currently have unfettered access to millions of home PCs around the world.

"By securing your computer you help to shut down spammers. It's as simple as that. And the solution is right at your fingertips," added Mitchell.

The "Take Back the Net" campaign, and instructions for securing your computer, can be found at http://www.SecureYourComputer.org/. The computer cable ribbon logo is also available for download there so that people can display the logo to encourage others to secure their computers and take back the net.

Contact:
Anne Mitchell
ISIPP
http://www.secureyourcomputer.org/
650-292-2198

News Source: PRWeb