Spam's big 3-0

Thirty years ago the first spam e-mail was sent over the Arpanet, the front runner of the Internet. The message was sent to about 400 people on the West Coast of the U.S. by a marketing person at Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) to advertise new computer hardware.

DEC has since been absorbed by other companies, but spam has grown and clogs e-mail boxes around the world. As many as nine of every 10 e-mails on the Net are spam. CBS 5, a local San Francisco Bay Area TV station wanted to talk about the anniversary of spam and they called McAfee on Saturday evening. I talked to Dan Knapp about how spam has gone from an annoyance to a serious threat.