Last year web host McColo was closed down under much hype and publicity in the media. The side effect of this was a unprecedented 70 per cent cut in the volume of Junk e-mail being distributed, however according to leading web security firms spam volumes have rapidly recovered to reach similar epidemic levels to those monitored in 2007/8.

As well as the huge annoyance factor to users and of course the threat to network security there is also the impact of spam e-mail on the environment, which is according to new research is equivalent to putting 3.1 million cars on the road. Even when you take the closure of the McColo site into consideration over 62 trillion junk e-mails were sent in 2008, each message accounts for 0.3g of CO2 (according to Web Security company McAfee), over 80 per cent of this was caused by messages being deleted and users searching for valid emails in their mailbox. As well as CO2 the same equivalent energy used (33 billion kilowatt-hours) would have powered over two million homes or a city the size of London for approximately a year.

"Stopping spam at its source, as well as investing in filtering technology, will save time and money, and will pay dividends to the planet by reducing carbon emissions as well," said Jeff Green, senior vice president of product development at McAfee, "spam has an immense enviromental impact" he added.