First published: 23rd March 2010
Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, has apologised to Gunter Ollmann and other security bloggers for the link spam sent when a third-party marketing agency hired by Sophos went out of control. The advertising agency apparently attempted to boost the company's search-engine ranking by using automated tools to send banal comments containing links to Sophos' website.
Ollmann was understandably annoyed by the posts, "I find this a pretty unsavory tactic, especially if it's initiated by a security company looking to be trusted by its customers".
Graham Cluley said, "I am mortified, as is everyone in our marketing team, that this has happened" in a reply to Ollmann and a statement to The Register.
Sophos has called the marketing company concerned for a meeting and pledged to prevent further incidents.
