That the internet is polluted is not in doubt. Email spam is the example of pollution with which we are most familiar.
If you keep a blog, however, you may also be familiar with "comment spam", whereby malicious individuals post mass, automated comments to as many weblogs as they can, in order to get links to their own (usually porn, gambling or pill-pushing) sites.
Pollution also comes in the form of search engine spam -- the bane of a Googler's existence -- where individuals try to mischeviously manipulate search engine results (not to be confused with legitimate search engine optimisation, the topic of my own book).
As if all of this wasn't bad enough, we now have to contend with worm pollution which, according to Kelly Martin of The Register, is getting out of control:
Take a few short moments to watch the receive light on your modem or unfettered ethernet connection. Here in high bandwidth Canada, that flashing light now flashes almost solid. It's almost unbelievable. It's almost all malicious traffic.
... I am finding it increasingly difficult to explain to laypeople about security on the Internet. The situation is only getting more complex, and worse. My Aunt Fern pulls her old computer out of the closet and plugs it in. Big mistake. She'd be better off with a typewriter, I tell you. In a few minutes her machine is already 0wn3d, and she just flipped it on.
And the bad news? It's getting worse...
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