SPAM - apparently it's everyone

Mike commented on my SPAM post from last week that his volume is increasing dramatically as well. It turns out that this is a widespread phenomenon. Seems that an increase in bot nets may be to blame. One can debate the merits of one OS vs. another or another, but regardless of your desktop OS, it all comes down to safe and responsible use of an Internet-connected computer. If you're lax in keeping up with security patches, downloading crap from random websites, opening attachments from strangers sending you email, and not keeping your home network locked behind a firewall, you're just contributing to the problem.

Unfortunately, there is very little good education out there, ISPs aren't unplugging people who are running these bot net zombies, and the average computer owner/user simply doesn't have enough reason to care. If they only understood that their own sloppiness was the reason their inbox is filling up every day with crap, they could start helping to fix the problem.