America Online's associate general counsel, Randall Boe, told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday that junk E-mail is costly for U.S. businesses and consumers. Sen. Conrad Burns, a Montana Republican who chairs the subcommittee, has said he may introduce legislation to crack down on it. In the case of Chrysler and Chrissie, the perpetrator could have been paid to distribute the E-mail as widely as possible. Unethical companies or individuals pay them to send millions of E-mail messages at a fraction of the cost of traditional mail, which is covered by strict pornography and fraud rules. By contrast, even the naughtiest spam is legal in Michigan and every other state except Washington.
Hackers often use high-speed corporate computers as a means to send huge quantities of spam quickly.
That's because most legitimate Internet providers, such as CompuServe or America Online, cancel accounts of repeat spammers. Chrysler's information systems team emphasized that the hacker never actually entered Chrysler's computer system or had access to any inside information about Chrysler products or business strategy. It's the equivalent of a would-be burglar who, failing to break into a house, sits on the lawn furniture and dips into the backyard pool. The home owners feel invaded, but discover it's nearly impossible to find the sneak once he leaves the neighborhood. But they lament that there's little they can do when someone uses the firewall as a bouncing board.