Political spam threat looms

All three political parties are expected to use email heavily in the campaign for the next General Election, widely expected to take place on 3 May.

John Cheney, managing director at Activis, said: "The political parties have realised that email is a very effective way to reach people. A lot of this mail is going to reach people at work, and that's going to cause a problem for systems administrators."

Most will just be text, but the Conservative party already sent out an animated 'virtual William Hague' email to members of the 'Save the Pound' campaign, with a large attachment which caused problems for many systems administrators, according to Cheney.

The virtual William Hague email also contained a .exe file - a common source of viruses arriving over email.

Cheney also warned that unofficial political emails could cause a headache for IT managers. One such email, comparing pictures of George W Bush to pictures of a chimpanzee, did the rounds during the US Presidential election and is still being sent and received widely and regularly around the world.