Ever wondered what those spam filters can do for you and your computer? To see just how effective they could be, and what life might be like without them, security company McAfee invited 50 people from various countries to spend a month living the online life without them.
The results proved very interesting, showing the US to be the most-spammed country, with participants there receiving over 23,000 spam mails during the month, followed by Brazil with just under 16,000. The UK clocked almost 12,000, while the lest-spammed country was Germany, where participants only got 2,300 spam messages.
Some 8% of the mails proved to be phishing messages, and a number of those taking part noticed their computers slowing, meaning malware had been installed when visiting websites.
Dave De Walt, chief executive of McAfee, told the BBC:
"Our participants came from all walks of life, from all over the world and, given their interest to take part in the experiment, they were well aware of the problem. Despite this, they were all shocked by the sheer amount of spam they attracted. We can see from the experiment that spam is undeniably linked to cybercrime. However, it is such an immense problem and it’s never going to go away. It’s no longer a question of solving it but one of managing it,"
