digital media strategy blog

Even being as careful as possible with my email address, I still used to receive more than 100 email messages a day, which is no exaggeration. Only about 10% of those emails were from people that I knew and the rest of the messages were unwanted email…”spam”. And I’m sure you can relate to my frustration. It is estimated that over seventy-six billion unwanted email messages were delivered in 2003, costing companies more than $10 billion each year.

So How Do They Get Our Email Addresses?

In making online purchases, you should always realize that your email address could be given or sold, regardless of what the merchant’s privacy policy may state. Even filling out an online survey or registering your email address to become a member of a web site is subject to having your email address given away. Also, there are spider programs that spammers use that search the web and “harvest” email addresses, much like search engine spiders do when they acquire web site information.

Tips To Avoid Getting Spam

1. Don’t Click “Unsubscribe”: On the bottom of some spam emails you will find an “Unsubscribe” link. Some of these are legitimate links, while others are tools to indicate that your email address is valid. Unsubscribing could actually result in getting more unwanted email.

2. Spam Filtering: Some ISPs or domain services carry spam filtering options, and there are filters and rules you can use in some email programs (i.e. Microsoft Outlook, Eudora and Apple’s Mail OSX). While no spam filtering program can eliminate spam completely, it can greatly reduce the amount of spam you receive. But you must be careful in using any sort of spam filtering mechanism, as you may ultimately filter out some of your wanted email.

3. Get Two Email Addresses: Use your primary email address for business or personal use, and the other for making online purchases and for filling out web site registration information.

4. Update Your Web Site: The best overall solution is to have people contact you through a form on your web site, as your email address is not so easily revealed. If you must have direct links to your email address on your site, consider having a link that simply reads “email” or “contact” instead of spelling it out on a web page.

There are many simple methods that you can use to help reduce the amount of spam coming through to your business. By using these tips, you will not only save yourself time and money, but you will ultimately send a strong message to the people send unwanted email.

About The Author

Edward Robirds is a success-driven artist and interactive media developer based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since 1996, Edward has been building business relationships with several association and commercial clients around the world. Founder of www.DreamseaArtworks.com, Edward uses his artistic skills, expertise and passion to design and develop web sites, interactive CD-ROMs, and print media for his clients.

mail@dreamseaartworks.com

Remember when spam was just another horrible thing you would never eat? And then you grew up a little and spam became the lyrics to a great Monty Python song. And now spam is something to avoid at all costs. Or, in the case of free spam blockers, at no cost at all. Everything is better when it’s free, right? Such is the case with blocking out annoying spam from your email account, too.

Free spam blockers are popping up all over the internet. Kind of ironic, isn’t it, that some pop-up ads are advertising spam blocking technology. The problem with spam isn’t really the content, of course, it’s the time spent winnowing through all those e-mails in search of the ones that really contain useful information or are from people with whom you want to contact. The best free spam blockers in the world are not only free, but don’t take up any space on your computer. Yes, I’m talking about being very careful to whom you give your e-mail address.

The plain simple truth is that any time you fill out a form that asks for your e-mail address, you are just asking for spam. Maybe the site where you filled out the form sold your address to mass marketers and maybe they didn’t, but chances are if you have ever given your e-mail address to a company rather than an individual, you received spam because of it. And if you’re like most people doing business on the internet, you’re spending anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour and a half just checking your e-mail every day. You don’t have time to wade through the spam pool. That’s why getting yourself one of the reliable free spam blockers out there is so important.

You can almost instantly tell when you’ve come across one of these free spam blockers because of their oh-so-clever name. For instance, Spamhilator, SpamButcher, or SpamKiller. And you want to know a secret? They are almost all exactly alike. Oh sure, there are little differences that may mean a lot to you personally, but frankly it doesn’t matter. The best thing you can do is download them as a trial versionand with so many on the market offering trial versions, it makes no sense to ever download any of the free spam blockers that don’t offer trial versionsand check them out to make sure they do what they promise. And if they do what they promise, do they do it with a minimum amount of fuss and muss and maintenance on you part.

The key to using free spam blockers is maintenance. You got one in the first place to give yourself more time to do what you need to do. So why would you want to use a spam blocker is high maintenance itself? Go through all the free spam blockers that interest you and then narrow them down until you find the one that works completely in the background without throwing out stuff you really need and that doesn’t require you to keep checking up on it. That’s the one you want.

Matt Garrett www.Free-Spam-Blockers.Com
www.Spam-Filters.net

Unwanted email is no joke.

At the very least, unsolicited email wastes everyone’s time.

Much worse however, are the dangers that this unwanted

email brings.

I’m talking about the problems of spyware and adware, of

computer viruses, and of so-called phishing attacks that

enable identity theft and threaten your financial security.

There’s no doubt that reducing unwanted email helps just

about everyone, whether site owner or site visitor. This

article aims to help both.

==ASIDE==

Note: this article is based on 3 Tips to Help Webmasters

Reduce Sp*m in Their Inbox, Today, written a year or so ago.

Webmasters and site owners will find many more tips here

- http://www.anyonecansellonline.com/stop-spam.shtm
l

==ASIDE==

Let’s begin.

Here’s how webmasters and web visitors can reduce unwanted

email:

TIP 1. USE A CHALLENGE RESPONSE SYSTEM

What is a challenge response email system?

Well, “it is an anti-sp*m system which is designed to shift

the filtering workload from the recipient to the sp*mmer (or

the legitimate sender).

“The fundamental idea is that sp*mmers will not take the

time to confirm that they want to send you email, but a

legitimate sender will.” Extracted from

- http://domain-dns.com/docs/challenge_response.htm
l

Basically, a challenge response system aims to prevent

unwanted email getting through to your inbox.

COMMENT:

As a newsletter publisher, I find challenge response email

systems time-consuming to say the least. I have to confirm

my newsletter publication email address is valid so that my

free newsletter gets delivered to my subscribers. For a free

newsletter, that’s a lot of work.

However, I can see that challenge response systems probably

do ‘work’, to a degree.

LINKS:

- http://textmefree.com/control-spam-today.html#cha
llenge

or

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=challeng
e+

response+systems (all one word)

TIP 2. USE DISPOSABLE
EMAIL ADDRESSES

What are disposable email addresses?

Well, without stating the obvious, they’re email addresses

you can dispose of. They’re easy to set up, use once, and

forget. So if someone sends unwanted email to this email

address you’ll most likely never know about it.

COMMENT:

As a site owner and newsletter publisher, I am not a fan of

disposable email addresses being used to become a site-

member, etc. Responsible email marketing is one method that

webmasters or site owners use to keep their site free, after

all.

However, I can see why a site visitor might want to use them

also.

==ASIDE==

Disposable email addresses make perfect sense to use when

requesting one-off information, like my free articles

(ahem!). You receive one free article, like this one, sent

to your email address and nothing else.
- http://www.wise-buys.info/webmaster-articles.shtm
l

==ASIDE==

LINKS:

- http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=disposab
le+email

TIP 3. HIDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

This tip is aimed at anyone who leaves their email address

on a website or online forum.

Either replace all email links on your site with “contact

forms” or encrypt your email address. And be careful when

leaving your email on a forum.

There are several ways you can ‘hide’ your email address but

the basic idea is to try not to leave a ‘live’ email address

on a site or forum. (Technically speaking, I’m talking about

not using mailto: for your email addresses.) And you can do

this by:

o Encrypting your email address with ASCII-code;

o Encrypting your email address using JavaScript;

o Using an anti-sp*m feedback form, only;

o Putting your email address in an image.

As simple as that, really.

==ASIDE==

Hide your email address? From what? Well, programs called

sp*mbots search the internet for email addresses. They get

added to a database, and eventually used by sp*mmers. Find

out how to block sp*m bots from your site here

- http://www.kloth.net/internet/bottrap.php

==ASIDE==

COMMENT:

As a site owner, removing live mailto: links from your

website may take some time, but the amount of time

you’ll eventually save will make this activity worthwhile.

However, not all of the methods discussed above are 100%

sp*m-proof.

Here’s an example of a contact form that uses several of the

above techniques:

- http://www.best-digital-cameras.co.uk/contact-us.
html

As a site visitor, you’re relying on either not using your

real email address (see Tip 2, above), or on hoping that the

owner of the site you’re using has anti sp*m measures in

place to hide your email address. Do take care.

LINKS:

- http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=mailto a>+encrypter

- http://willmaster.com/master/feedback/

- http://www.privacysig.com/

- http://www.anyonecansellonline.com/stop-spam.shtm
l

- http://website101.com/SpamFilter/spamfilter.html<
/a>

TIP 4. FILTER YOUR EMAIL

If all else fails, you simply have to filter your email.

That means automatically deleting the junk via a set of

rules (or filters). How you do this depends on what email

software you use: Outlook, Outlook Express and Eudora have

email filters (sp*m filters) that are easy to train.

Web-based email sites like AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo! etc. also

allow you to filter your email.

COMMENT:

I still rely on this method to filter out unwanted or bad

email, though it never filters out all of the junk. As a

site owner, one way I can be sure that the email is unwanted

is if it’s sent to an email address that I know does not

exist; e.g. AnythingGoes@mysitedo
main.com (I try and

avoid using these catchall email addresses nowadays).

LINKS

- http://www.slipstick.com/rules/junkmail.htm

So, there you have it: four tips you can use to reduce

unwanted email, today.

As I said in the beginning of this article, unwanted email

is at the very least an unpleasant waste of time. So it

really is important that you try at least one of the sp*m-

reduction tips shown.

Above all, site owners should remove their mailto: links

from their website, and site visitors should simply take

care when and where they use their email address online.

Everyone can learn more from the resources listed here

- http://www.anyonecansellonline.com/stop-spam.shtm
l

Tennessee resident K. C. “Khan” Smith owes the internet service provider EarthLink $24 million. According to the CNN, in August 2001 he was slapped with a lawsuit accusing him of violating federal and state Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes, the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984, the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and numerous other state laws. On July 19, 2002 - having failed to appear in court - the judge ruled against him. Mr. Smith is a spammer.

Brightmail, a vendor of e-mail filters and anti-spam applications warned that close to 5 million spam “attacks” or “bursts” occurred in June 2002 and that spam has mushroomed 450 percent since June 2001. This pace continued unabated well into the beginning of 2004 when the introduction of spam filters began to take effect. PC World concurs.

Between one half and three quarters of all e-mail messages are spam or UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) - unsolicited and intrusive commercial ads, mostly concerned with sex, scams, get rich quick schemes, financial services and products, and health articles of dubious provenance. The messages are sent from spoofed or fake e-mail addresses. Some spammers hack into unsecured servers - mainly in China and Korea - to relay their missives anonymously.

Starting in 2003, malicious hackers began using spam to install malware - such as viruses, adware, spyware, and Trojans - on the unprotected personal computers of less savvy users. They thus transform these computers into “zombies”, organize them into spam-spewing “bots” (networks), and sell access to them to criminals on penumbral boards and forums all over the Net.

Spam is an industry. Mass e-mailers maintain lists of e-mail addresses, often “harvested” by spamware bots - specialized computer applications - from Web sites. These lists are rented out or sold to marketers who use bulk mail services. They come cheap - c. $100 for 10 million addresses. Bulk mailers provide servers and bandwidth, charging c. $300 per million messages sent.

As spam recipients become more inured, ISPs less tolerant, and both more litigious - spammers multiply their efforts in order to maintain the same response rate. Spam works. It is not universally unwanted - which makes it tricky to outlaw. It elicits between 0.1 and 1 percent in positive follow ups, depending on the message. Many messages now include HTML, JavaScript, and ActiveX coding and thus resemble (or actually contain) viruses and Trojans.

Jupiter Media Matrix predicted in 2001 that the number of spam messages annually received by a typical Internet user will double to 1400 and spending on legitimate e-mail marketing will reach $9.4 billion by 2006 - compared to $1 billion in 2001. Forrester Research pegs the number at $4.8 billion in 2003.

More than 2.3-5 billion spam messages are sent daily. eMarketer puts the figures a lot lower at 76 billion messages in 2002. By 2006, daily spam output will soar to c. 15 billion missives, says Radicati Group. Jupiter projects a more modest 268 billion annual messages this year (2005). An average communication costs the spammer 0.00032 cents.

PC World quotes the European Union as pegging the bandwidth costs of spam worldwide in 2002 at $8-10 billion annually. Other damages include server crashes, time spent purging unwanted messages, lower productivity, aggravation, and increased cost of Internet access.

Inevitably, the spam industry gave rise to an anti-spam industry. According to a Radicati Group report titled “Anti-virus, anti-spam, and content filtering market trends 2002-2006″, anti-spam revenues were projected to exceed $88 million in 2002 - and more than double by 2006. List blockers, report and complaint generators, advocacy groups, registers of known spammers, and spam filters all proliferate. The Wall Street Journal reported in its June 25, 2002 issue about a resurgence of anti-spam startups financed by eager venture capital.

ISPs are bent on preventing abuse - reported by victims - by expunging the accounts of spammers. But the latter simply switch ISPs or sign on with free services like Hotmail and Yahoo! Barriers to entry are getting lower by the day as the costs of hardware, software, and communications plummet.

The use of e-mail and broadband connections by the general population is spreading. Hundreds of thousands of technologically-savvy operators have joined the market in the last five years, as the dotcom bubble burst. Still, Steve Linford of the UK-based Spamhaus.org insists that most spam emanates from c. 80 large operators.

Now, according to Jupiter Media, ISPs and portals are poised to begin to charge advertisers in a tier-based system, replete with premium services. Writing back in 1998, Bill Gates described a solution also espoused by Esther Dyson, chair of the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

“As I first described in my book ‘The Road Ahead’ in 1995, I expect that eventually you’ll be paid to read unsolicited e-mail. You’ll tell your e-mail program to discard all unsolicited messages that don’t offer an amount of money that you’ll choose. If you open a paid message and discover it’s from a long-lost friend or somebody else who has a legitimate reason to contact you, you’ll be able to cancel the payment. Otherwise, you’ll be paid for your time.”

Subscribers may not be appreciative of the joint ventures between gatekeepers and inbox clutterers. Moreover, dominant ISPs, such as AT&T and PSINet have recurrently been accused of knowingly collaborating with spammers. ISPs rely on the data traffic that spam generates for their revenues in an ever-harsher business environment.

The Financial Times and others described how WorldCom refuses to ban the sale of spamware over its network, claiming that it does not regulate content. When “pink” (the color of canned spam) contracts came to light, the implicated ISPs blame the whole affair on rogue employees.

PC World begs to differ:

“Ronnie Scelson, a self-described spammer who signed such a contract with PSInet, (says) that backbone providers are more than happy to do business with bulk e-mailers. ‘I’ve signed up with the biggest 50 carriers two or three times’, says Scelson … The Louisiana-based spammer claims to send 84 million commercial e-mail messages a day over his three 45-megabit-per-second DS3 circuits. ‘If you were getting $40,000 a month for each circuit’, Scelson asks, ‘would you want to shut me down?’”

The line between permission-based or “opt-in” e-mail marketing and spam is getting thinner by the day. Some list resellers guarantee the consensual nature of their wares. According to the Direct Marketing Association’s guidelines, quoted by PC World, not responding to an unsolicited e-mail amounts to “opting-in” - a marketing strategy known as “opting out”. Most experts, though, strongly urge spam victims not to respond to spammers, lest their e-mail address is confirmed.

But spam is crossing technological boundaries. Japan has just legislated against wireless SMS spam targeted at hapless mobile phone users. Many states in the USA as well as the European parliament have followed suit. Ideas regarding a “do not spam” list akin to the “do not call” list in telemarketing have been floated. Mobile phone users will place their phone numbers on the list to avoid receiving UCE (spam). Email subscribers enjoy the benefits of a similar list under the CAN-Spam Act of 2003.

Expensive and slow connections make mobile phone spam and spim (instant messaging spam) particularly resented. Still, according to Britain’s Mobile Channel, a mobile advertising company quoted by “The Economist”, SMS advertising - a novelty - attracts a 10-20 percent response rate - compared to direct mail’s 1-3 percent.

Net identification systems - like Microsoft’s Passport and the one proposed by Liberty Alliance - will make it even easier for marketers to target prospects.

The reaction to spam can be described only as mass hysteria. Reporting someone as a spammer - even when he is not - has become a favorite pastime of vengeful, self-appointed, vigilante “cyber-cops”. Perfectly legitimate, opt-in, email marketing businesses and discussion forums often find themselves in one or more black lists - their reputation and business ruined.

In January 2002, CMGI-owned Yesmail was awarded a temporary restraining order against MAPS - Mail Abuse Prevention System - forbidding it to place the reputable e-mail marketer on its Real-time Blackhole list. The case was settled out of court.

Harris Interactive, a large online opinion polling company, sued not only MAPS, but ISPs who blocked its email messages when it found itself included in MAPS’ Blackhole. Their CEO accused one of their competitors for the allegations that led to Harris’ inclusion in the list.

Coupled with other pernicious phenomena - such as viruses, Trojans, and spyware - the very foundation of the Internet as a fun, relatively safe, mode of communication and data acquisition is at stake.

Spammers, it emerges, have their own organizations. NOIC - the National Organization of Internet Commerce threatened to post to its Web site the e-mail addresses of millions of AOL members. AOL has aggressive anti-spamming policies. “AOL is blocking bulk email because it wants the advertising revenues for itself (by selling pop-up ads)” the president of NOIC, Damien Melle, complained to CNET.

Spam is a classic “free rider” problem. For any given individual, the cost of blocking a spammer far outweighs the benefits. It is cheaper and easier to hit the “delete” key. Individuals, therefore, prefer to let others do the job and enjoy the outcome - the public good of a spam-free Internet. They cannot be left out of the benefits of such an aftermath - public goods are, by definition, “non-excludable”. Nor is a public good diminished by a growing number of “non-rival” users.

Such a situation resembles a market failure and requires government intervention through legislation and enforcement. The FTC - the US Federal Trade Commission - has taken legal action against more than 100 spammers for promoting scams and fraudulent goods and services.

“Project Mailbox” is an anti-spam collaboration between American law enforcement agencies and the private sector. Non government organizations have entered the fray, as have lobbying groups, such as CAUCE - the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail.

But, a few recent anti-spam and anti-spyware Acts notwithstanding, Congress is curiously reluctant to enact stringent laws against spam. Reasons cited are free speech, limits on state powers to regulate commerce, avoiding unfair restrictions on trade, and the interests of small business. The courts equivocate as well. In some cases - e.g., Missouri vs. American Blast Fax - US courts found “that the provision prohibiting the sending of unsolicited advertisements is unconstitutional”.

According to Spamlaws.com, the 107th Congress, for instance, discussed these laws but never enacted them:

Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act of 2001 (H.R. 95), Wireless Telephone Spam Protection Act (H.R. 113), Anti-Spamming Act of 2001 (H.R. 718), Anti-Spamming Act of 2001 (H.R. 1017), Who Is E-Mailing Our Kids Act (H.R. 1846), Protect Children From E-Mail Smut Act of 2001 (H.R. 2472), Netizens Protection Act of 2001 (H.R. 3146), “CAN SPAM” Act of 2001 (S. 630).

Anti-spam laws fared no better in the 106th Congress. Some of the states have picked up the slack. Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The situation is no better across the pond. The European parliament decided in 2001 to allow each member country to enact its own spam laws, thus avoiding a continent-wide directive and directly confronting the communications ministers of the union. Paradoxically, it also decided, in March 2002, to restrict SMS spam. Confusion clearly reigns. Finally, in May 2002, it adopted strong anti-spam provisions as part of a Directive on Data Protection.

Responding to this unfavorable legal environment, spam is relocating to developing countries, such as Malaysia, Nepal, and Nigeria. In a May 2005 report, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) warned that these countries lack the technical know-how and financial resources (let alone the will) to combat spam. Their users, anyhow deprived of bandwidth, endure, as a result, a less reliable service and an intermittent access to the Internet;

“Spam is a much more serious issue in developing countries…as it is a heavy drain on resources that are scarcer and costlier in developing countries than elsewhere” - writes the report’s author, Suresh Ramasubramanian, an OECD advisor and postmaster for Outblaze.com.

ISPs, spam monitoring services, and governments in the rich industrialized world react by placing entire countries - such as Macedonia and Costa Rica - on black lists and, thus denying access to their users en bloc.

International collaboration against the looming destruction of the Internet by crime organizations is budding. The FTC had just announced that it will work with its counterparts abroad to cut zombie computers off the network. A welcome step - but about three years late. Spammers the world over are still six steps ahead and are having the upper hand.

Sam Vaknin ( samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.

Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

Visit Sam’s Web site at samvak.tripod.com

Every day, both dmoestic and corporate users of the internet receive considerable amounts of spam e-mail. They are not only annoying, but sometimes you can miss an important e-mail or newsletter simply because you lose it among the great number of e-mails that flood out your Inbox. Often you’ll find that important people neglect to read your e-mail, because busy people like them hardly have the time and patience to browse through the huge quantities of spam mail they receive.

One solution to this problem is a filter or a free spam blocker. Many companies have designed filters for their customers. Many e-mail servers, especially the renowned ones that have a reputation to protect, have their own free spam blocker. There are several types of programs that can help you stop spam, including:

- the ones that are offered when you create a new e-mail address. Every company that provides e-mail service has a spam filter, including those that offer free accounts like Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail and so forth.

- there are also standalone programs that go through your mail folders regularly and do their best to separate valid e-mail from spam and unwanted mail. The main disadvantage with these free spam blockers is the fact that, when they do their checks, they use quite a large percentage of your computer’s resources and sometimes also of your bandwidth. Before installing this kind of free spam blocker, you’ll need to decide if this is okay with you.

- other types of free spam blockers are the ones that work as plug-ins to other programs like e-mail clients. The disadvantage with this kind of approach is that you need to download all your mail anyway, before the plug-in can do its stuff.

When you decide to use a filter, you must be sure that you update it or install new versions regularly, because marketing researchers working for spammres are continuously developing new ways of ‘fooling’ the filters. Filter makers must keep up by improving their software accordingly.

A free spam blocker works by looking for trigger words or phrases inside the text of the e-mails, and categorizing e-mails on that basis. Nowadays, there are special programs being created that are designed to pass spam through free spam blockers by re-arranging words or using a different language style in the e-mails. This is an unfair marketing strategy, of course, but if you want to be protected against it, you must always have an up-to-date version of your free spam blocker program.

Specialists recommend that you should review your needs and see what kind of filter suits you best. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. You must make up your mind whether you want to use the default filter on the e-mail server, or if you want to download all your mail before scanning them, or if you are willing to share your bandwidth with a standalone application. The best way is of course, if you can blend all the programs in one, but that’s not always practicable. Still, it is advisable that you should not remain satisfied with the free spam blocker that your e-mail server provides, because you will probably continue to receive unwanted mail in spite of it. Using a plugin in addition to server-side filters is viewed by many experts as the most effective way of getting rid of spam, considering the trivial effort it takes to set up.

Matt Garrett www.Free-Spam-Blockers.Com
www.Spam-Filters.net

With anti spam vendors offering low cost licensing, businesses can now afford advanced email spam and virus protection with a simple to use interface at a much lower cost. The great thing about technology is that as it evolves it gets faster, additional features and economical. Over the past few years the same evolution has taken place with anti spam technology and services. In large part this can be attributed to the open source software community plus enterprising companies enhancing the capabilities of this software and packaging it into easy to use anti spam appliances.

It is not practical to have anti spam software running on desktops in a networked business environment. Managing all employee junk email software at the desktop is not realistic. It can be a nightmare and costly in terms time and licensing.

Spam appliances sit in front of your email server so that when email comes in it will first go to the spam appliance and the email will be scanned for spam as well as viruses. The filter will block the message if it identified as know spam. If the filter is not sure if the email is genuine it will quarantine and hold the email at the filter and it will be stored until the recipient deletes it, releases it to their email box, or they can white list a trusted correspondent so that future emails will not be held back. This will greatly reduce the load on your email server and reduce your bandwidth needs. We have seen anti spam systems block up to 83% of incoming messages. This could help extend the life of your email server and push back the need for upgraded capacity.

Most virus outbreaks occur via email and for little cost an appliance can block viruses before they reach your network and user’s inboxes. This provides an extra layer of defense in addition to your current anti virus solution.

Businesses have two options if they use an appliance based solution for their spam and virus control. They can purchase and administer their own filter. This is a good option if you have a large number of employee mailboxes to protect and the technical staff to administer the spam appliance. Businesses also have the option to outsource their spam control as a hosted service. This is a good choice for smaller companies and if information technology is not your specialty.

If you purchase your own spam filter, a subscription to updates may also be required. Make sure you get upfront pricing for the add-ons that you will need. If you have more than 100 email users and the technical staff to maintain the spam appliance, buying your own filter may be your best option. Generally the basic model will work for most organizations. Large organizations with thousands of users will require a spam filter appliance with increases capacity and features. Spam appliances are designed to work with all mail systems but some do have specific enhancements for Exchange server Microsoft’s popular collaboration software and mail servers that support LDAP (light weight directory access protocol). Spam appliances use the LDAP protocol to verify recipients before delivering messages to your email server, this avoids consuming server resources.

If your business has five to one hundred employees, then an outsourced anti spam and virus filter service is going to be a good economical choice for your organization. Fees are based on the number of users and you only pay for what you use. You will not have hardware to buy, maintain, and upgrade. The upfront cost is minimal and most email filtering providers will let you try the service for free at first. Another added benefit to outsourcing your spam control is redundancy. It is important that you choose a provider that has their spam and virus filters collocated at secure internet data center facilities. Data centers provide redundant network connections and power, so if your email server or internet connection is down unexpectedly the spam appliance will hold your email until your email server becomes available, minus spam and viruses.

Anti spam technology is constantly improving and the costs are getting lower. With increased productivity and an added layer of defense against virus attacks, an anti spam appliance or service is something your business can not afford to be without.

John Tourloukis is the founder of Fast PC Networks an internet consulting company and anti spam and virus filter service firm

RSS directories are popular these days. RSS is widely used initially by news sites to allow others to syndicate their news stories. Now, a lot of other websites are using RSS. It is being used in flagging new forum headlines, auction listings, sales listings and others.

The meaning of RSS is actually not clear. RSS may or may not be an acronym, actually. RSS may stand for Really Simple Syndication. But others say its Rich Site Summary and sometimes Rich Syndication Standard. The noted creator of RSS directory would be Netscape. It was released sometime in March 1999. The included a UserLand application which is called scripting news. Netscape stopped developing it, but UserLand continued doing so. Another company, RSS-DEV Working Group also released their own version.

RSS directories are sites that collate all RSS links and place them in different categories for other applications to use. This is similar to web hosting, only instead of web pages, they contain RSS links. These links will pop out on the website and when you click it, you will be directed to the main source of the link.

RSS poses a lot of uses for those who’d like to use the Internet for marketing or commerce. Here are the things you can do with it:

Create links from their website to yours. If you are selling or promoting something, web traffic is important. The more RSS directory you upload, the more chances you have people seeing those and checking your site out. And if they have customized their sites with your RSS feeds, then they would get updated listings from your site to theirs automatically.

Collating analysis. If you have a brand and you’d like to know how your competitor is doing, you may use RSS to see what they have so far. Get a directory of their product or service so you’ll know first hand what they have come out with. With the data gathered you now can plan on how you can counter them.

Tracking your own progress. If you can check out your competitor, of course you’d like to check out too how your business or product is going too. With an RSS directory of your own, you can know how many people are interested in what you are selling or offering.

Increases productivity. Putting up RSS directories, let’s say for newsletters, adds efficiency to your company. If you use RSS for sending out newsletters instead of mailing them to recipients, you’d eliminate the possibility of your letter being classified as spam by users, or being sent in a closed mail account.

Increases efficiency. There are a lot of websites or news articles that could be beneficial to your brand or company. At times, you’d like to add them to your site. Without the use of RSS, you’d have to copy the entire thing down and note where you got it. If you use RSS, then the headline and part of the story shows up on your site. And this is an automatic process now. If you use RSS, you just include the directory and automatically, the headline appears without you doing much.

Posting RSS directories could cost you some. But the benefits override it. Some sites even offer free RSS directory posting. If you are just starting up, you may like to check those out. The more RSS directory you have up, the more the possibility that you are sending out information to the people interested in your goods. Reason behind is that people will only get the RSS feeds that they are interested in. If they get yours, they sure are the target market.

Disseminating information online has become easier with RSS. The technology provided a cost-effective way of transferring facts and figures out. Utilizing it would definitely add up to your marketing approach. With it, you have an avenue of reaching out to even more people so easily.

RSS uses XML to syndicate pages. Though that sounds a little technical, there a lot of websites that has user-friendly interface to guide in building your directory. Go ahead and put up your RSS directory up now. RSS has proven to be essential. It has ceased to be an option; it has become a necessity.

Executive Summary

Unsolicited commercial email, also commonly known as spam, has developed a negative reputation because it is at best a waste of valuable time and at worst an offensive intrusion into one’s desktop. It is estimated that 56% of all mail that passes through the Internet is spam which is an increase of 40% from one year ago today. In addition, it is estimated that spam costs an average of $874 per employee per year, with a loss of approximately 1.4% of productivity due to managing spam on the desktop.

Introduction

Internet email is an electronic system through which messages are transferred between systems on behalf of their users. It is a trusting system in that the mail server will deliver a message to the receipt that it is addressed to. This level of trust becomes a problem when anyone in the world can send an email to anyone. Individuals and organizations that send unsolicited email (spammers) are taking advantage of this trusting system.

Currently, there is very little that can be done to prevent spammers from creating and sending emails. At this time, the only effective remedy to this nuisance is implementing a filtering system to aid in the management of spam.

Determining the Nature of Spam

It is fairly obvious to a person who is reading an advertisement for Viagra that the message is spam. However, to a computer the email is just strings of numbers, letters, and symbols. This is the first challenge in the process of managing spam: how to get a computer to analyze these strings to recognize and differentiate the welcome from the unwelcome emails.

The simplest method for avoiding spam is to only accept mail from authenticated senders. This is easy to implement but would result in the receipt of almost no email from outside organizations. This is due to the trusting nature of the email system which treats every incoming connection as a valid connection. Building a “white list” of known peer servers from trusted organizations (i.e., business partners and clients) is, unfortunately, impossible to maintain for a large organization.

One method for determining whether or not an incoming message is spam is by testing the sending server for full compliance with RFC 2821 and correct DNS setups. RFC 2821 is the specification used to describe how messages are to be sent between SMTP mail servers, and the correct DNS setups have to occur with the cooperation of the ISP who owns the IP address assigned to the mail server. This method of testing for compliance with the RFC’s and collaboration with the sender’s ISP allows the receiving server to block the incoming connection once it has determined that the sending server is probably not a mainstream server. This system works because, traditionally, many spammers have built very basic bulk emailing engines, and many of these engines are so poorly constructed that they are barely capable of sending mail at all. The downside to this method is that there is a high likelihood of a false positive when interacting with some open source or low-cost email servers.

Freeware code or low cost systems are commonly used by small organizations for budgetary reasons. Another issue with this method is that many spammers send their mail through valid mail servers that have been inadvertently left available to act as relays (mail forwarders), and the relay servers will pass all of these initial configuration tests.

Another common manner of avoiding mail classified as spam is to identify the sending server as it attempts to send mail by using a third party mechanism called a Blacklist server. These servers, such as the Open Relay DataBase or SpamCop, offer a free service by holding databases of identified addresses of numerous spammers and open relays. When a mail server attempts to send mail, a simple query of one or more of these services is typically sufficient to reduce the volume of spam by 25%. However, these services are not perfect and can result in false positives or negatives due to either overly aggressive databases or latency in reporting. For instance, one of the most reliable databases of server addresses, ORDB.org, only tests to see if the server is misconfigured as an open relay. If a spammer sends mail from a properly configured server or from one that has not yet been reported, then the mail will pass this test. In addition, many companies have had difficulty getting their valid servers out of these databases, which causes an issue with irresolvable false positives.

A third way for determining spam is through the use of content filtering. This method involves the filtering of mail by matching it against a list of words or phrases. This list of words and phrases is maintained on the server either by the local system administrator or through a subscription service. Although this method was popular several years ago, spammers have become adept in avoiding these filtering engines by masking their content with misspellings. In order to keep the list accurate and up to date, the system administrator or keyword service must continually increase the size of the list. This particular method tends to be fraught with false positives and false negatives. For example, one mail user might actually be using Viagra that would result in a false positive, and V1agr@ is still Viagra that would result in a false negative. This filtering method is considered by most as ineffective at filtering out anything but the most offensive email.

A final method of filtering spam is Bayesian filtering which is a very successful variation of keyword filtering. This method differs from traditional filters as it utilizes a statistical method for filtering messages based on the content of the message and the end user trains the system by providing feedback on what is and is not spam. Based on this feedback the filter builds an index of all of the words and phrases, including misspellings, which tend to occur in messages indicated as spam. The main reason this system operates better than conventional keyword filtering is that it is able to filter a message that misspells the primary keyword phrases or words. Essentially, if the spammer misspells everything in the message, then it cannot get through. The only significant drawback to this system is that there is a delay in implementation due to the need of training the system, and there is an ongoing need for the end users to inform the system of false positives and false negatives. The advantage of this system is the frequency of the required feedback declines over time. Also, the system reacts quickly to spammers new techniques because it is constantly learning based on feedback from the users.

Handling Spam

Once a message has been identified as spam, the recipient must determine how the message will be handled. One approach is to refuse to accept the message once it has been identified, or to delete the message before it is delivered to the end user. This method, although a common method for implementing controls on a mail server, carries the risk of deleting a valid message that has been improperly identified as spam.

An alternative way of managing spam is to clearly identify the message as such. This involves inserting an identifier of some sort into the header or subject line of the message that identifies it as spam. For instance, a spam filter can be configured to insert the word [SPAM] into the subject line so that the recipient can see the message and manage it appropriately. Once the message is identified, it is simple enough to set up a rule or filter on the mail client that will automatically sort the message into a folder marked “spam”. The end user can periodically review the messages in this folder to identify any false positives.

Implementing a Filtering System

Building a method for determining whether or not a message is spam is not sufficient, and until there is a major revision to SMTP, one that is less trusting, a mechanism needs to be built to somehow filter the spam out of incoming mail.

The simplest manner to accomplish this is by purchasing a spam-filtering appliance. This mechanism would be installed in front of the organization’s current mail server and would serve as a relay that would filter out spam as it passes through the server. Although this “black box” system is easy to implement, there are a few issues that might prompt a system administrator to look elsewhere for an alternative solution. The first notable issue is that these systems typically require some sort of subscription service to maintain functionality. Second, the level of control or optimization available is minimal and limited to the features or options planned and implemented in the appliance’s system. Aside from its ease of installation, this approach allows for very little change or adjustment to the systems that are already in place.

Another approach similar to the appliance method would be to implement filtering software in front of the mail server. Once the software is selected it can be installed on a mail server or on the same system as the organization’s existing server. The software acts as a relay server, forwarding and filtering messages into the existing mail server. Since this is a software-only solution, there are a few advantages over the appliance solution. One significant benefit is that there are a wide variety of software solutions offered. Another advantage is that this mechanism can often be installed directly on the mail server itself, avoiding the cost of maintaining another system. This system has the same disadvantage as the mail filtering appliance in that it is another system for the administrator to maintain.

Many of the more robust mail server systems implement some sort of spam control mechanism directly, as part of their receipt and delivery function. This is very easy to use and implement, but is dependent on how well the filtering mechanism was implemented in the mail server’s system and which method might be available. The advantage to this is tight integration with the mail server. For instance, if a mail server receives a message that is deemed spam, it may automatically reply with a message stating that the “user does not exist”. This may help to decrease the likelihood of the spammer sending additional messages to the address, but other systems that relay messages might not be able to provide this level of filtering.

Another approach for implanting a filtering system is spam control software being installed as a component of the mail client itself. Using this mechanism is simple and inexpensive to implement, but works differently than some of the server-based controls. For instance, some of these software controls simply key in on the sender’s email address and mark anything from an unknown sender as spam. In addition, many of these systems require a subscription to maintain keyword lists, as Bayesian statistical techniques are not effective for a single user’s small volume of mail messages.

An alternative option would be to outsource the entire filtering mechanism to an outside organization that specializes in mail hosting and filtering. This is a cost-effective approach, because it is often much less expensive compared to the purchase and implementation of a software filtering system on-site. In addition, outsourcing the function makes change very easy; if a third party provider does not provide sufficient or accurate filtering, then the provider can quickly be changed. This level of freedom is not available when a solution is purchased for local installation.

End User Training

It is important to train end users on how to handle spam when it comes into their mailbox. A few simple rules can be sufficient to help to reduce the ongoing impact of spam:

1. Regardless of the circumstances, a user should never respond to spam. Responding to the message tells the spammer that the email address is valid and makes the address worth more than it did before. In fact, one is more likely receive more spam after responding to try to get off the spammer’s list.

2. Avoid viewing or previewing spam. There are telltale markers embedded in HTML-based spam that helps to identify that the message was actually read.

3. Don’t forward spam to a colleague, especially if utilizing a Bayesian filtering system, as this will lend validity to the content of the message.

4. Be judicious in how an email address is handed. Filling out every form on the Internet with a personal or business email address is bound to result in the receipt of more spam messages.

5. Take email addresses off from a personal or business website and replace them with forms that send email in the background from the web server via cgi. There are automated programs that simply scour the web for email addresses that might be embedded in web pages.

About ITX Spam Filtering

ITX offers a hosted anti-spam solution that provides a blended method of identifying and handling spam. Acting as an SMTP relay for incoming mail, ITX’s mail server starts with an identification of the sender by IP address and submitting for reference to a blacklist database from ORDB.org. Next, the content is checked for relevancy in a fully trained Bayesian database. These factors are combined to determine, with 99% accuracy, whether or not the message is truly spam. Messages identified as spam will be marked as such in the subject line, checked for virus signatures, and forwarded on to its final destination. Unlike most providers, ITX has a strict policy of never deleting or refusing mail that is earmarked to a client.

This conservative, blended approach has proved to be a stable and reliable solution that has been extensively tested in a production environment. Anti-spam filtering is available to both ITX mail hosting clients, along with POP3/SMTP services, and to Spam filtering clients as a relay mechanism.

About ITX

ITX is a business consulting and technology solutions firm committed to consistently providing superior products and services in nine practice areas including Business Performance, IT Solution Strategies and Implementation, Internet Marketing, Technical Services, IT Staffing, Internet Services, and Technology Research.

It is through the total commitment to process and quality that ITX combines the highest level of resources and expertise to ensure our clients operate effectively and efficiently. ITX’s ability to leverage the proper mix of skills results in providing high quality technology services and solutions both quickly and at a competitive cost. ITX clients return again and again for scalable products and services that perform reliably and assure a significant return on investment.

About Jonathan Coupal

Jonathan Coupal is the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of ITX Corp, a business consulting and technology solutions firm based in Rochester, New York. Mr. Coupal manages both the day-to-day and strategic operations of the Technology Integration Practice Group. Among Mr. Coupal’s greatest strengths are evaluating customers’ unique problems, developing innovative, cost effective solutions and providing a “best practice” implementation methodology. Mr. Coupal’s extensive knowledge and experience enables him to fully analyze client systems to recommend the most effective technologies and solutions that will both optimize their business processes and fulfill immediate and future goals. Mr. Coupal and his team build a high level of trust with clients, establishing ITX as their IT partner of choice. Mr. Coupal holds certifications with Microsoft and CompTia, including MCSE, MCSA, Security+, Linux+ and i-Net+, and served as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the development of the CompTia Linux+.

Thanks to Real Simple Syndication RSS feed can make your business very famous, very quickly amongst the Internet World of surfers and users. RSS of course can also help you achieve the ultimate victory in content. How can you have the best of all worlds in RSS feeds to help propel your website traffic and your business?

Well if you hook up with a decent set of content providers you can find your self with excellent and fairly unlimited content. If you are a content provider or a public relations specialist then RSS can help you make your clientele bigger than life and literally everywhere all over the Internet overnight.

What can you do if you own an online business and you want to take advantage off all this RSS to help propel your marketing and business around the Globe? Well, simply start putting out informative information in the form of articles, synopsis paragraphs, report, papers and excerpts.

Once your information hits the RSS feed lines it goes out to anyone signed up. Even better is that many companies have huge RSS feed lines and huge numbers of affiliates and if your information goes out thru them, you can reach folks on the Internet that you might never have had a chance to meet. Consider all this on 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Every one of us knows how spam impacts us. Every day we either get a ton of spam - or if we’re fairly well protected by spam filters - only a few pieces.

Like a large number of people, I don’t use any spam filters. Ah. You think I’m insane. But wait. My problem is that I get a lot of email from marketing types which I want to receive. And the spam filtering software is not very sensitive to my needs. Even white-listing doesn’t always work. So, I prefer to get all that spam and just delete it.

Now this solution can work for me despite the time it takes to delete my daily overdose of spam. However, at the enterprise level, it’s a whole different story. If you have a relatively large internal network with even a modest number of email users, you’re looking at a major problem. And the more users you have, the worse the problem is.

Sure, you can put up software on the mail server. Works, kind of. But pretty soon you may find you need to upgrade the mail server. And that’s after you already put it on a stand-alone machine.

Rather than continuing to buy ever more expensive software to run on a machine that keeps needing to be upgraded, you might want to think about a dedicated anti spam appliance.

To give you some idea of what’s possible let’s take a look at Barracuda Networks dedicated anti spam appliance. All you need to do is put this baby in front of your mail server. I say baby, advisedly because this one will learn by doing and by training provided by your users.

Dean Drako, CEO of Barracuda Networks said, “Bayesian filtering is still one of the most accurate defenses against spam. The new plug-ins allow users to directly train the Bayesian filter, making the Barracuda Spam Firewall even more accurate based on the users individual email preferences. Viruses and other threats can infect the network quickly if they are not stopped at the network edge. With Intent Analysis our customers have an advantage over these threats because the Barracuda Spam Firewall is able to block them real time. Consequently we have consistently been a first responder when some of the most malicious virus attacks have hit, saving our customers from potentially devastating damage to their networks.”

This is one beautiful little machine. A Barracuda Spam Firewall can support from 1,000 to 30,000 active users. It can usually be installed in less than five minutes and receives automatic hourly updates for new forms of spam and viruses. It has a 10 layer defense system beyond the use of open source anti spam and anti virus solutions: denial of service and security protection, IP block list, rate control, virus check with archive decompression, proprietary virus check, user specified rules, spam fingerprint check, Intent Analysis, spam rule-based scoring, and Bayesian analysis. Plus it also does both inbound and outbound email filtering with the inclusion of sophisticated outbound email filtering techniques (just in case you’ve got a spam zombie on board or somebody’s got an infected PC).

However, it isn’t exactly cheap. Still, when you consider the time, bandwidth, user frustration and potential hardware upgrade costs, the price may look a lot more reasonable. You can check it out at http://www.barracudanetworks.com/

If you are in the market for an anti-spam appliance, the Barracuda Spam Firewall isn’t your only choice. The impact of spam on internet businesses - even those who primarily use it for just email - is so great that a simple search for “anti spam appliance” will find you a number of alternatives to examine. Even McAfee is getting into the anti spam hardware game.

I’m hoping that it won’t be too long before I can pick up a Bayesian multi-level anti spam, anti virus firewall appliance for my home PC that keeps me safe and cuts my need to delete without deep-sixing the email I want or costing me more than I can afford. I suspect it’s on the way.

Copyright 2005 Richard Keir

Richard writes in a variety of areas involving eBusiness and the internet. For more on spam visit http://anti-spam.werkz.org and for general eCommerce go to http://building-ecommerce-websites.com