A popular email security company said it would cease trading after being victimised by one of the world's biggest spammers. The Israeli-based firm Blue Security said it could no longer continue to operate in the face of an escalating to the internet from a malicious Russian spammer known only as PharmaMaster.
Recent attacks have websites around the world, with a leading web host saying at the time that one had seemed "to have brought down half of Canada's network". The attacks on Blue began after it a large number of spam messages to its users, returning the messages to the en masse. This has been criticised as a vigilante attack by some; others have applauded the company for hitting where it hurts.
Eran Reshef, the of Blue, said his company, which recently drew $4.8m in funding and counts several senior industry figures as directors, was simply unable to become trapped in a war against a criminal group. "This is something that really has to be left to governments to decide. To fight the spammers you really need to $100m."
It is not yet clear whether the attacks were traditional "denial of service" strikes, where a virus thousands of "zombie" computers to a website with traffic.
Industry insiders are concerned that capitulating to intimidation could signal the beginning of more attacks. Mr Reshef remained unapologetic though: "It's a dirty little secret that there is no real way to totally denial-of-service attacks - if the attacker is prepared to put enough money in, then they can beat you every time.