Press Release Author = Ross Cooney, Rozmic Wireless
Industry = Computers
Press Release Summary = DO YOU fancy engaging in financial transactions with the widow of the ex-Nigerian minister for oil? No? How about learning the secret of eternal life for just $99?
Press Release Body = DO YOU fancy engaging in financial transactions with the widow of the ex-Nigerian minister for oil? No? How about learning the secret of eternal life for just $99?
Still no? Well, neither do I, nor do the millions of others who fire up their email each day to find it littered with countless offers to buy questionable shares or treatments for erectile disfuncion.
Nevertheless, it doesn't stop the spammers from sending us this meaningless garbage.
With our increasing dependence upon email, messaging and the internet in recent years spam has grown exponentially, and has replaced malware (viruses and worms) and hacker damage as the number one cause of business loss.
A US survey conducted in October 2006 found that spam, when measured in terms of denial of service and productivity losses, accounted for a staggering $10.4 billion. By comparison, the damage from malware was $8.5 billion, and hacker damage from verifiable overt digital attacks caused less than $1 billion of losses.
So while it\'s important to protect yourself against malware and the attentions of hackers, increasingly it\'s the sheer amount of time spent dealing with common spam that\'s costing us all money.
Of course, spam isn\'t just about unsolicited junk mail. It can carry viruses, spyware and phishing attacks, or employed to overload email servers and cause a denial of service (DoS) attack. Sadly, there\'s still plenty of people out there who\'ll open an unrecognised email attachment from the FBI, or what they think is their bank - with devastating consequences.
SMEs are the most vulnerable businesses to spam, since big enterprises tend to have dedicated filters in place to check both outbound and inbound emails. SMEs tend to rely upon proprietary software and hope the problem of spam will remain manageable.
Another solution is to filter emails off-site, but this can cause concerns about confidentiality and security. The only sure way to overcome the proliferation of spam is to pay for a system where a team of technicians around the world will analyse data and statistics from all clients using the system, to help build a pattern of traffic and employ counter measures.
Spammers never sleep, so spam fighters, utilising different time zones and massive collective processing power must operate 24/7.
So long as spammers make money - and the Direct Marketing Association say email generates $32 billion in sales per year - there\'ll be only one loser in the never-ending battle between email administrators and spammers: the honest business.
Just as anti-crime laws don\'t prevent crime effectively, so anti-spam laws will not prevent spam. Only by staying one step ahead of the spammer, by constantly analysing data worldwide and applying remedies, will businesses be able to operate free from questionable financial offers and much worse.
2025
