They study the stats, and sculpt their messages accordingly. According to an analysis by CipherTrust, clickthough rates on spam vary enormously, with porn leading the charge.

- Porn 5.6%
- Pharmaceuticals 0.02%
- Rolex watches 0.0075%

Of course, that is most of what you see too, proving spammers know their business. Frankly, I know why Rolexes are so low - they cost a mint to fix!

Almost forgot - one of Lawrence Livermore Lab’s databases was hacked. At least it was only 250 or so employees that were caught in the mess (although the actual value - security clearances and all - may make each record more interesting to some thief).

I just hope it wasn’t porn surfing that was to blame.

..when you hear news like this.

If you don’t protect your computer from potential infection, you are complicit in the result. That doesn’t mean you deserve it though. If you are a child pr0n scoundrel, you deserve anything bad that can be dished at you, even if it is the Sober worm that gets you busted.

but I can attest to the fact that “pr0n”-oriented spam is still alive and well in the blog spam world.

The day before reading this report about get-rich-quick schemes outrunning pr0nography in the email world, I had produced a post at another blog regarding the Kaiser Family Foundation’s findings on “inappropriate content” in TV-land.

Big mistake.

I used the word containing an “s”, an “e”, and an “x” in the title, and was subsequently barraged by “inappropriate” comments and trackbacks. It was big in volume, and fast in reaction. I am going to be “much” “more” “careful” from now on, and am thankful I caught it, deleted the post, and re-wrote it before the all-seeing Google cache got ahold of it.

Panda Software is now reporting a top ten list of spyware threats, and pop-up smut tops the charts. This kind of bums me out. If I knew the biggest spyware threat was smut, I wouldn’t have bought my Apple PowerBook to avoid it.