First Spam. Now Spim

Posted on August 22, 2004

Unfortunately spam will no longer just happen to your email. The BBC reports that a new form of unwanted commercial messages called spim will get at you through your instant messaging service.

Alyn Hockey, technical director at internet security firm Clearswift, told the BBC that "It's not really as dangerous as spam. With spim, it tends to be more of an annoyance."

So, so far spim is just a minor annoyance. But isn't that how spam started out too? Most people don't run instant messaging as an open system. They only want messages from a few people whereas emails can come from anyone. This should make it easier to keep spim out and keep it from becoming a big problem.

SPAM