Yesterday I got over 400 spam e-mail messages. Either I spend way too much time in questionable chat-rooms, or the technologies they use for spam, viruses, worms, etc., are getting better and more efficient.
As for me, I use an anti-spam product called Cloudmark. It is the best I've seen; so the spam wasn't a problem … just a growing trend.
On a positive note, new technology is often exploited first in fringe areas (malware, porn, etc.). I expect that many of the things we curse about the power and sophistication of these techniques are soon harnessed to solve many problems and issues that we haven't yet thought possible.
So, on a related note, it reminded me that I just saw a nice piece on where spam comes from. Here is the graphic.
Source: MIT Technology Review.