Paul C: Spam

"Spam is an unsolicited, unwanted email," says Paul, a technician at Powerland Computers. "It is email that you don't want or haven't signed up for."

Spam is a growing concern among home and corporate customers. People, whether at home or at the office, receive between 10-15 pieces of spam each day. The cost to businesses and home users is enormous.

"Spam is driven by money," says Paul. "It is inexpensive advertising that doesn't even have to use mailing lists to get to your email address."

Large Spam agencies use a variety of methods for finding email addresses. Most popular is to use a dictionary search to generate a list of words. For example, the dictionary search will find the word "neutral" and then add "@hotmail.com". If your address is "neutral@hotmail.com", then the advertising would get through to your mail address. Since there is no cost to send the email, the Spam agency can send millions of pieces at a time at minimal cost.

Paul lists a number of things that people can do to avoid or manage Spam. "Number one, give yourself a cryptic email address that won't be easily found by dictionary searches," says Paul. Email addresses that contain a combination of numbers and words may be best.

"Number two", says Paul "is to employ a two tiered mail system." Each user would have one mail address that is closely guarded and given only to trusted contacts. The other email would be used for all other contacts, including list services and on-line purchases.

Thirdly, a filtering solution can be employed. Third party filtering software based on Bayesian filtering could be quite effective. Bayesian filtering determines that a message is Spam based on its contents. As the user identifies Spam, the program learns.

Spam is most definitely here to stay. Powerland has the knowledge and products to help you filter your email for spam. Please call the Powerland Service Department for solutions!

Chad K: Spam and Corporations

"SPAM sucks,” says Chad, a Powerland employee, when asked about spam at Powerland. Powerland receives about 600 pieces of Spam per day. Spam, according to Chad, "mostly looks for the gullible potential victims of their scams." Spam costs companies through lost productivity and because they have to implement anti-spam solutions.

Spam is attractive to criminals and scam artists. "Many spammers break the law when they send Spam," says Chad. "In order to avoid sending advertising from their addresses, they find ways to send Spam from other computers. They forge the headers and fake the addresses. It makes sense that the products that they are advertising are also disreputable."

Spammers use other peoples computers as conduits. They include Spam engines in worm viruses. The "sobig.c" virus was a mass mailing virus. Spammers also look for poorly configured mail servers. These mail servers may be set to distribute mail worldwide rather than to employees in a company. These servers are then used to distribute Spam. Older mail servers working with unsupported operating systems are most at risk.

When asked for what companies can do to avoid Spam and being a Spam conduit, Chad listed the following options. Depending on the mail server, one or more of these should be implemented.

1. Make sure that the server operating system and workstation operating systems are updated within a month of updates being released. Spammers build their tools based on flaws in the operating system. It usually takes a month for these tools to be developed.

2. Make sure that the server and workstations are running an up-to-date anti-virus solution. Since spam engines can be sent in viruses, the anti-virus is very important.

3. Make sure that the mail server is properly configured.

4. Have your employees develop a white list. This is a list of email addresses from whom they will accept mail. Other mail can be filtered by the mail server.

5. Implement an email confirmation protocol. When the employee sends an email they also send a notice with a confirmation number. The recipient must email this confirmation number back before they have access to the email address.

6. Work with "real-time black hole" lists. Available for free on the internet, these lists identify computers and servers that are sending spam. These addresses are listed. The mail server software can be set to block these addresses. Microsoft Exchange Server has this option. Implement an anti-spam Solution. Chad recommends a product with updates, like the products from Brightmail.

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