More Spam Calls for Greater Vigilance from Business Owners

Small businesses often have to fight an uphill battle while trying to run their computer networks in a smooth way and preventing it from spam. The reason for this is the massive amount of malware like viruses that come through spam every day, say computer experts.

Spamming, which refers to the manipulation of e-mail system, randomly sends masses of unsolicited e-mails to others' inboxes. The most commonly found spam is bulk of electronic messages that contain viruses/spyware.

Moreover, spam is increasingly spread through compromised "zombie" networks or virus/worm infected computer networks formed by compromising offices and homes PCs across the world. Most modern worms plant a backdoor that enables the spammer to access the targeted computers.

According to Jeff McCulloch, President, Yeo & Yeo Computer Consulting LLC in Saginaw, the problem of spam is a big issue today. With 90% of the total e-mails comprising spam, it is most outrageous. Besides, most companies are not financially strong enough to have anti-malware solutions on their PCs as safeguard against virus outbreaks or other disturbances inflicting their system network, as reported by mlive on September 17, 2008.

Another security problem currently faced by businesses is of phishing scams that grew 180% last year (2007), as per statistics from APACS, an online payment association. This is hardly surprising, with most people are banking online. During the period between 2001 and 2008, the total number of online banking users increased 500%, with over 21 Million of such people estimated in 2007.

Furthermore, there were over 26,000 phishing incidents spoofing the UK bank and boosting society clients during January-June 2008, compared to approximately 7,200 in the same period previous year.

In addition, these phishing instances could be hard to detect today. Earlier, the fraudulent e-mails were quite crude with poor spelling and grammar but they are now more slick and persuasive. spammers are widely prevalent, with little digital creatures that make computers sick, or simply make them shut down.

Also, very often, enterprise owners have an external body for monitoring their computer activity essentially when employees in the workplace open a corrupt e-mail, state security experts.

Related article: More Requests For Better E-Mail and Spam Control

» SPAMfighter News - 9/23/2008