October 03, 2008, 7:02 AM — The growth and cost of spam - GFI Software
The Radicati Group, a US research firm, estimates that 52% of current global email traffic is spam mail and predicts this will reach 70% by 2007. Similarly, the European Union estimates that 50% of all email messages are spam.
This means that employees must dedicate part of their work time to dealing with spam, which results in a decrease in productivity (and an increase in frustration!). Loss of productivity is the main cost of spam, particularly as so many spam mails are received per day. There is also the cost of bandwidth wasted by spam, as well as other storage and network infrastructure costs. Furthermore, with the influx of spam and its deletion, an important message could accidentally be trashed along with the unsolicited mail in the rush to clear one's inbox of junk mail
Ferris Research calculated that if an employee receives just 5 spam mails a day and spends 30 seconds on each, he will waste 15 hours a year on junk mail - now multiply that by the hourly rate of each employee in your company and you will have a very conservative idea of the cost of spam to your organization. The Radicati Group reported that spam cost IT around US$49 per mailbox in 2003, and expects this to skyrocket to US$257 per mailbox in 2007.
It is essential to put a stop to spam to save time, money and bandwidth. One step towards achieving this is to advise your network users to keep their email address private (no postings to message boards etc.). However, apart from applying common sense, you also need to deploy an effective server level anti-spam tool.
Choosing the correct anti-spam software
Many software packages are available on the market to help you combat spam; but not all are incisive enough in dealing with spam. A number of key features/issues that you should look for are discussed below.
Server-based or client-based?
Battling spam at client level is much more time-intensive than at the server level. It requires you to deploy anti-spam software to all workstations on your network and involves frequently returning to those workstations to update the anti-spam rules on each of them. It also means that your email infrastructure is being taxed by spam, as your server message stores are filling up with useless emails waiting for deletion. What's more, it also involves time on the part of your users, who have to identify spam or update their rule sets: This is the very thing you are trying to oppose in your bid to block spam!
In addition it does not have the information and resources that a server-based anti-spam software has - it does not allow you to perform sending server checks, for example. To block spam effectively, you need to have a server-based anti-spam product, because it offers these advantages:
1. Installation at the gateway eliminates the deployment and administration hassle involved with desktop-based products.
2. Far cheaper to license.
3. Prevents spam from even entering your email infrastructure, meaning that your email stores are not full of spam messages.
4. Server-based anti-spam software has more information, and can do more to detect spam effectively.
Read the full article: How to keep spam off your network
