From WAPO:

Eran Reshef had an idea in the battle against spam e-mail that seemed to be working: he fought spam with spam. Today, he'll give up the fight.

Reshef's Silicon Valley company, Blue Security Inc., simply asked the spammers to stop sending junk e-mail to his clients. But because those sort of requests tend to be ignored, Blue Security took them to a new level: it bombarded the spammers with requests from all 522,000 of its customers at the same time.

That led to a flood of Internet traffic so heavy that it disrupted the spammers' ability to send e-mails to other victims -- a crippling effect that caused a handful of known spammers to comply with the requests.

Then, earlier this month, a Russia-based spammer counterattacked, Reshef said. Using tens of thousands of hijacked computers, the spammer flooded Blue Security with so much Internet traffic that it blocked legitimate visitors from going to Bluesecurity.com, as well as to other Web sites. The spammer also sent another message: Cease operations or Blue Security customers will soon find themselves targeted with virus-filled attacks.

Today, Reshef will wave a virtual white flag and surrender. The company will shut down this morning and its Web site will display a message informing its customers about the closure.

"It's clear to us that [quitting] would be the only thing to prevent a full-scale cyber-war that we just don't have the authority to start," Reshef said. "Our users never signed up for this kind of thing."

Security experts say the move marks a disheartening development in the ongoing battle by computer users, online businesses and law enforcement against those who clutter e-mail inboxes with a continuous glut of ads for drugs, porn and get-rich-quick schemes. According to Symantec Corp., maker of the popular Norton antivirus software products, more than 50 percent of all e-mail sent in the latter half of 2005 was spam.

I have been using their software for a week now. And while I did not know if it was having an impact, it felt good to know I was doing SOMETHING, anything... in the war against these arrogant scumbags that fill my email and my blog with porn and viagra on a daily basis.

These people are terrorist... Blue Security was fighting a lonely war against them, and now they have won. It is a sad day for those of us who use the internet for more than playing online games and trying to find someone to cheat on our spouses with...

What I dont understand, is if we have the capacity to spy on millions of phone calls and emails, why can't we put spammers out of business.

The Cost to business:

Spam will cost the world $50 billion in lost productivity and other expenses a research firm said Wednesday, with more than a third of that -- $17 billion -- wasted by U.S. firms.

According to San Francisco-based Ferris Research's newest report, spam's cost is primarily in lost worker time as employees filter spam, deal with false positives, and query corporate help desks for assistance with the plague.

"But the costs could be a lot worse," said Richi Jennings, one of the Ferris analysts who authored the report. "We haven't seen as much of a spike in costs as in spam volume," he added, "because more organizations are putting in better anti-spam technology."

Since 2003, for example, spam volume hitting U.S. enterprises has jumped five fold, while costs have not even doubled. In 2003, Ferris estimated spam costs to U.S. organizations at $10 billion, with 2005's lost money amounting to $17 billion.

is obviously staggering...

So my question is... If Blue Security could come up with an effective way to fight them, why can't our governments...

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