How To Avoid E-mail Dangers
E-mail is a wonderful tool that increases the speed of business. It also helps the bottom line of agencies by saving money cutting costs associated with things such as postage, faxing to long distance numbers and paper supplies.
There also is a dark side to e-mail, however. Unwanted or spam mail can flood our inboxes, viruses are spread at the speed of light and e-mail servers become crippled. And in today's world, if the e-mail server goes down or is unavailable, people act as if no work can get done.
In the information age, e-mail will continue to enhance our lives. But, as with any technological advancement, there will be people looking to exploit it and take advantage of unsuspecting individuals. That is precisely why the government is in the process of crafting and passing legislation that would make spamming a crime. Unfortunately, professional spammers/virus coders are experts at covering their tracks.
Now it seems as if there's a war going on between three virus writers.The latest MyDoom, Netsky and Bagle virus code writers are sending "trash talk" in their code attempting to outdo each other with newer strains of their respective viruses, and then including hidden messages for each other (e.g., "Hey, Netsky, your virus stinks"). This creates a problem: They continually are updating their infectious code to stay one step ahead of the anti-virus software makers.
Your company should be equipped with anti-virus software at the server and desktop level, as well as some type of e-mail filtering software. E-mail filtering software will help you manage the bulk of incoming spam mail.
Theres a new technology called "Bayesian Filtering." It learns the patterns of all incoming and outgoing e-mail and then begins to block based on a series of events. You also can manually add domains, e-mail addresses, keywords and subject lines to either block or let pass to your inbox. E-mail that is characterized as spam can also be directed to specific folders within the users inbox where each user would then have personal control.
You should incorporate a company-wide attachment blocking policy. I have established a very aggressive blocking policy wherein all EXE, ZIP, SCR, PIF files (just to name a few) are stripped out of incoming e-mails and placed in a quarantine folder that can then be scanned for viruses, or deleted if necessary.
A little common sense goes a long way when dealing with e-mail. If you follow the above rules (along with any others you may have in place), it will help reduce the sheer volume of spam mail received and the threat of a rogue virus running through your network server(s). And although spam mail will go on as long as there is money to be made, you can help by not replying to any unsolicited e-mails that are received. Spammers get paid by companies because people respond to and buy whatever product they are advertising. If we refuse to do business with spammers, theyll simply run out of money.
E-mail allows us to communicate across the globe at a fraction of the cost of other traditional methods. We can preserve its effectiveness by being aware of the dangers lurking just outside our inboxes.
Meanwhile try applying some of the simple rules outlined in the box attached to this article. By doing so, you can reduce your chances of having a stressful e-mail experience.
Michael J. Montgomery (mike.montgomery@haakeins.com) is systems administrator for Haake Companies, an Assurex Global Partner, based in Overland Park, Kan., and regional director for the Applied Systems User Group (ASCnet), the user group of Applied Systems agency technology.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, June 11, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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