Next I.T.

Posted: Sunday, June 7, 2009
Category: Email

A week ago, a report was presented by Symantec showing that Spam now accounts for 90.4% of all email traffic. Link Take a look at this chart:

(credit: Message Labs)

Of course, we're all concerned when we log into Outlook on Monday morning and see "Cheap Viagra" (or worse) but the huge volume of spam has other far reaching concerns.

Protecting our business email box to prevent production loss while filtering through the "junk".
Protecting our websites from spam attacks. If you have a customer contact form, spammers can attack this, requiring security measures to be implemented. More security equals more investment.
Slow Internet access and lack of productivity. If you're using a spam prevention tool that resides on your server, then you're allowing all of that email (90% of which is spam) to come down your ISP connection before it's blocked. This can result in using your resources for something other than business reasons.
Increased expenses from your ISPs. As the big ISPs have to increase the size of their infrastructure to accommodate for the 90% of spam, your prices go up.
Virus/Malware attacks on your network. One of the tactics spammers use, is to infect a machine on your network, and use it to send out the millions of spam emails. This tactic makes the spam appear to be sent from you instead of the true criminal. Besides risking being 'blacklisted', it will use up considerable resources of your network and Internet connection.

What can you do?

Email isn't going away, and as long as someone, somewhere clicks on that "get rich quick" ad, spammers aren't leaving either. As someone in business, you need to take these steps to protect yourself, and ensure spam isn't biting into your bottom line.

Implement a hosted spam prevention solution. With this type of solution all email sent to you (spam and genuine) is redirected to another server, cleaned, and then the genuine messages are passed on. This methodology protects your Internet connection from being clogged with spam slowing you down. The cleaning is done before the traffic ever reaches your network.
Get a configurable, business-class firewall in front of your network. These devices will not only protect you from inbound threats, but should anything (malware, spambot, virus) get onto your network can be set to prevent the flood of email going outbound. Think of it as the "bouncer" at the door to the trendy nightclub, watching who comes in and who goes out.
Get your website updated with the most recent security protocols and code. Protecting your image, and on line database is crucial in today's business client. If your site was developed 2+ years ago, it's time for a review and update.

NeXt IT offers a comprehensive anti-spam program, including website security audits, firewall implementation and our own anti-spam product: NeXtWall. For more information click or call: 866-388-6398 or sales@next-it.net

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