Move over spam, make way for "spit"
A new plague of unwanted messages threatens internet users, according to a US company. Spam and spim - spam by instant messenger – are about to be joined by "spit" - spam over internet telephony. Qovia, based in Frederick, Maryland, have recently filed two patent applications for technology to thwart spit.
Internet telephony involves making phone calls using the internet instead of traditional phone lines. Also known as voice-over IP (VoIP), it is rapidly rising in popularity thanks to the fact that internet connections are becoming faster, and because it is cheap - it avoids the taxes levied on landline calls.
VoIP uses internet protocols to send information, meaning one message can easily be sent to thousands of recipients. Qovia thinks this means the technology is likely to appeal to spammers. The company ran a simulation showing that a computer could be programmed to send 1000 messages per minute over VoIP.
Winn Schwartau, an electronic security consultant for InterPact in Seminole, Florida, warns that our voice-mail boxes could become clogged with salacious and bogus advertising messages, just like our email inboxes are today. And denial-of-service attacks launched by armies of automated “spam-bots” could tie up targeted customers’ phone lines constantly, he says.
