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IT Security - Spam - Electronic junk mail
A global issue
Time-consuming
The term 'spam' generally refers to electronic junk mail, or unsolicited email. Not only annoying and time-consuming, spam also consumes network bandwidth. Just as it is impossible to prevent junk mail from arriving on your door-step, little can be done to prevent spam from being sent to your email address. Filtering
However, several methods can be used to limit the amount of junk mail received.
You yourself could also unwittingly be sending junk email. If your computer has been infected with a type of malicious software known as a 'Trojan', your computers, network resources and Internet bandwidth can be used by professional 'spammers' to relay tens of thousands of messages from your IP address. This type of software can be removed from your computers and your system immunised to inhibit such software in the future.  Industry opinion
SoftScan announced that nearly 90% of emails scanned during July were spam. Although it acknowledges that the percentage increase last month is due to less legitimate email as users are on holiday, rather than more spam, SoftScan points out that for those users without spam protection it isn't just their laundry that needs cleaning when they return, but their inbox too... Industry opinion
The highest percentage of spam stopped in July was 95.95% on Saturday 15th, but SoftScan say that generally spam levels have reach a plateau at around the 85% mark. This level has now been steady for the last eighteen months, only rising during traditional holiday periods when there is less business email.
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