Businesses should think carefully before taking security
advice from a former spammer, experts have warned.
Security experts from SophosLabs issued the note of caution
after Ryan Pitylak, one of the world’s worst spammers, announced he
was switching sides to join the anti-spam community – and offering
his services to business.
Pitylak was fined $1m (£0.53m) after losing a legal case brought
by Microsoft and the State of Texas. Pitylak, once rated as the
world’s fourth worst spammer, has admitted sending 25 million spam
e-mails a day.
He has now announced he is going straight. On his blog, Pitylak
says, “I am pleased to announce that I am now a part of the
anti-spam community, having started an internet security company –
Pitylak Security – that offers my clients advice on systems to
protect against spam.
“Over time I have come to see how I was wrong to think of spam
as just a game of cat and mouse with corporate e-mail
administrators. I now understand why so much effort is put into
stopping it.”
But Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos,
said, “Spammers like Pitylak have shown themselves to be prepared
to break the law in their eagerness to pump out unwanted marketing
messages,” he said.
“Some companies may feel uncomfortable about working with
someone who has shown a history of behaving unethically, without
caring about the consequences for other internet users. It is
important authorities make it clear that spamming is unacceptable,
and show these internet criminals that legitimate rewards cannot be
gained on the back of their unsavoury activities.”