The Main Risks Associated with Spam

There was a time when spam was considered little more than an invasive annoyance. It was merely an attempt, albeit an unwanted one, to communicate information about a product or service to as many people as possible. But then hackers saw another opportunity. They decided to use this tool as a means to exploit consumers and businesses.

Spam then, can pose considerable risk to the enterprise. But what are the primary issues?

Productivity – If we estimate the time that it takes for an employee to evaluate and delete an unwanted email, and multiply that by the number of employees, we begin to see how costly spam is. While this scenario may not represent real dollars spent mitigating the problem, it does translate into productivity losses which can have a financial impact. Time spent dealing with spam is time not spent on company business.

Storage Space – Company managed anti-spam solutions typically include one or more servers and software. Some estimates indicate spam accounts for over 90% of email. What this means is that a significant portion of that server space is used to receive and sometimes quarantine suspicious emails. If messages aren’t deleted, space can be easily consumed, forcing the purchase of additional storage space.

Security – Unfortunately, many spam messages are sent with the intent to harm the receiver. Clicking on erroneous links or opening infected file attachments can result not only in damage to the computer, but loss of data as well. In an era where privacy laws protect consumer data, the loss may be further compounded by financial penalties and damage to company reputation.

Spam can no longer be viewed as a problem of convenience, targeted at potential consumers. Real loss of data, reputation or company services can prove costly. Based on these risks, businesses should invest in solid anti-spam service solutions. To further reduce costs, cloud-based solutions have proved that they are not only up to the task, but will also save your time and money in the process.

Additional Resources:

http://www.allspammedup.com/2009/10/taking-control-of-the-risks/

http://www.spamlaws.com/

http://blogs.computerworld.com/16285/outbound_spam_hard_data_illustrates_real_risks

This guest post was provided by Veronica Henry on behalf of GFI Software, a leading software developer that produces network and messaging security solutions for SMBs. More information about GFI anti-spam solution can be found at http://www.gfi.com/mes

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.