Computer Basics

It's estimated that spam email comprises 90% of the hundreds of millions of emails sent around the globe every day. It's being predicted that spam email will grow further in 2007 to a huge 97% of all emails sent.

Unfortunately, at the heart of the problem are computer owners completely unaware it's their own computers which are being used to send the spam that ends up in their own inboxes. The scale of the problem is a little mind boggling. A typical warez based botnet consisting of thousands of compromised computers will send 160 million spam email messages in around 2 hours. Some researchers suggest that about 10% of the 650 million connected computers around the world are infected and being used by botnets. You do the math...

This spam problem uses a significant amount of valuable bandwidth. Filtering and destroying it is a large burden on IT staff and business organizations. It's ironic that these same ISPs and providers are spending more time building ever more efficient email servers with larger bandwidth availability to deliver emails no one wants!

While spam and email based worms will continue to dominate in 2007 they will further refine their techniques to target commonly used data files like audio, video and graphics as well as continuing to target document files like PDFs and applications such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

So how does an individual user combat this growing problem?

Most major providers such as Yahoo, MSN and AOL and others all provide solutions at their end to help curb the problem. However it takes a multi-layer approach to computer security to really have an impact. Every user should have antispam and antivirus software installed on their system in addition to that provided by their ISP. Physical viruses mutate and change...digital ones do the same and spam writers develop new techniques to deliver their junk. It is not a one time action to prevent becoming infected or compromised...it is a continuing effort.

Users must exercise caution in regard to who they are giving the email address and what they are signing up for online. As always, don't reveal personal information on a forum or other open gathering place on the Internet.

Eliminating the problem of spam email is most likely impossible...minimizing its impact on individuals is very possible. Solutions from Microsoft, Grisoft, Symantec, TrendMicro and others are available at no and low cost. There is no reason not to protect your computer beginning today.