Spam - Small Business
Dealing Effectively with Spam
Any business that believes spam is merely an annoyance in the office is sadly mistaking. A 2007 report by Nucleus Research shows that spam costs organizations in the United States $712 per employee every year. According to Nucleus, that adds up to an estimated $70 billion annually in lost productivity. The amount of time employees spend going through their inbox trying to distinguish junk mail from messages that require a response is invaluable time that could be spent handling more important tasks. Not only that, the flood of email that seems to grow larger has the power to tax the corporate network by gobbling up disk storage, bandwidth and other precious resources. Trying to manage all the extra emails and find a solution to the problem could also have a tremendous impact, particularly on a small business.
Things are grim, and while it looks as if spam is here to stay, there are a few ways you can minimize the affect it has on your business.
Spam Filtering
The epidemic of spam has led to the emergence of many anti-spam products. Aside from the outright spam filters, several mail clients come included with spam filtering capabilities, allowing you to designate certain words that are to be flagged and filtered away from your inbox. For example, emails bearing common spam phrases such as “click here” can be immediately sent to a quarantine folder, giving you the opportunity to check out the message to make the determination for yourself.
RBLs
Short for Real-time Blackhole Lists or Blacklists, RBLs are another method of preventing spam from reaching the company inbox. Unlike software products that use a number of filtering techniques, RBLs stop unsolicited mail at the server. An RBL contains a list of IP addresses that are known or suspected of distributing spam. These determinations are typically made by catching the senders in spam traps. This is a great way to minimize all those bothersome emails as some services have efficiency ratings of 90% of more. Two of the most popular RBL providers are BrightMail and SpamCop.
Good Practices in the Office
While blacklists and filtering programs help at cutting down on the amount of spam affecting your business, the internet habits of your employees may play the biggest factor. It is vital that all staff members understand that spam messages should never be replied to. Doing so will only let the sender know that your email address is valid, prompting them to send even more messages and possibly share the address with others in the spam community.
Employees should also be instructed to never use the company email account in any message boards or social networking sites on the web. Spammers are very advanced theses days and utilize special programs to scan popular hangouts for email recipients. If you must participate in such group settings, be sure to use your personal email account to keep the spammers away from the business inbox.
Conclusion
Even the U.S. government understands that spam is a huge problem as legislation has been passed with new laws in the works. Until we find a way to put a lid on this mess for good, the best advice is to make use of quality software and services combined with good ole common sense
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