At a dinner tonight in Boston, the evening before the Authentication and Online Trust Summit, I had the great privilege of sharing at table with Spamhaus Chief Information Officer Richard Cox.
He shared with me that Hormel, makers of SPAM (the tinned meat product), recently (and graciously) allowed Spamhaus to trademark their name. That’s quite a breakthrough for the spam-fighting non-profit, and certainly a first for Hormel. The company awoke one day and found itself the owner of a household name — for all the wrong reasons.
Richard was a delightful dining companion. He’s colorful, articulate, and very amusing. Even if he weren’t, it would have been exciting enough to meet a representative of the powerful, UK-based spam fighting organization. Historically, Spamhaus has kept quite a low profile.
“That’s about to change,” Richard smiled, enigmatically.