Mcafee's Spam Project.

Have you ever pondered to yourself, "What would happen if I left my computer without anti-virus, routine maintenance, or any care to be taken of it?" Do you imagine a zombie computer, revving its engine repeatedly in disgust of your lack of decent ownership?Well,Mcafee has released the results of its Spammed Persistently All Month campaign- So you do not have to wonder anymore.

The project asked a group of 70 users from 10 countries to surf the web unprotected and gather as much spam as possible.

The guinea pigs were able to amass a total of 104,000 spam messages, an average of 2,096 messages per person and 70 messages per day for each user.

Americans topped the spam haul, amassing 23,233 spam messages between five users. Brazil finished a distant second with 15,856 messages, and the UK was fifth with 11,965.

Participants in the study also noticed significant system slowdowns from unwanted software installations.

"In just 30 days there was quite a noticeable change in the performance of their computers," said McAfee Avert Labs senior vice president Jeff Green.

"This showed just how much malware was being installed without their knowledge, and that spam is much more than a nuisance. It is a very real threat. "

The US also led the study in the number of adult-oriented spam messages, while the UK received the highest number of Nigerian '419' messages. Brits received more than 23 per cent of the infamous money transfer scam attempts.

Financial services messages were the most popular spam topics, followed by advertisements and health and medicine messages. Adult emails were the fourth most-popular, while offers for free items were fifth and 419 scams tenth.

McAfee also noted an increasing number of location- and language-specific spam, particularly in France and Germany. The large spam loads in Brazil and Mexico also suggest a new focus on emerging economies.

"Our participants came from all walks of life, from all over the world and, given their interest to take part in the experiment, they were well aware of the problem," said McAfee chief executive Dave DeWalt.

"Despite this, they were all shocked by the sheer amount of spam they attracted in such a short time and the lengths the spammers would go to in order to achieve success."AA

Is Windows the Problem?

Using virus and malware-laden software used to just be a bad for one's productivity. As it turns out, it can also be a bad idea for one's career.

Michael Fiola, formerly an investigator with the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents, was charged with possession of child pornography. He lost his community's respect, many of his friends, and his family. His crime? He was given a Windows-based laptop that was riddled with vulnerabilities that were or became prey to malware.

An investigation showed he hadn't downloaded the pornography. His computer did:

When the DIA issued Fiola his Dell Latitude laptop in November 2006, it was so badly configured that it may well have already been hacked, said Tami Loehrs, a forensics investigator hired by Fiola's defense team. The Microsoft Systems Management Server software on the laptop was misconfigured and was not receiving critical software updates, and the laptop's Symantec antivirus software was either misconfigured or not working properly, she said.

"He was handed a ticking time bomb," she said.

In this case, it's called Windows. Or, more accurately, an IT department that inflicted a poorly implemented Windows environment on Mr. Fiola. Could this have happened with Linux or the Mac? Yes and maybe. Yes, because weak IT yields weak security. But maybe, because both of these Unix-based systems handle security much better than Windows traditionally has. But that's not really the point.

The real villain here, of course, is the pornography swine that would inflict themselves on unsuspecting users. There are enough losers out there interested in porn to not have to trick them into viewing it or distributing it.

We like to think of our computers as tools. In this case, however, it was Mr. Fiola that became the tool, however unwittingly.

This calls to mind just how critical it is to ensure our systems are secure. If, in fact, Linux or Mac are more secure from this sort of problem (a point that is debatable), then the "low cost" associated with Windows and ease of use must be balanced against the very real problems that can arise from using Windows (or, at least, older versions of Windows).

Did Microsoft create this problem for Mr. Fiola? No. If anything, it sounds like his IT department is to blame. But if it were me, I'd be asking for a Mac when joining a new company. With the Mac, my odds of having a Fiola-esque experience go down dramatically.