The Deal About SPAM
Just about every person who has an email account will most likely have received SPAM email. SPAM is the term given to any unsolicited email sent to a mailing list, group or individual. SPAM as a problem has grown exponentially over the past couple of years to become one of the greatest drains on company resources across the world.

That’s a little far fetched – isn’t it? Unfortunately it isn’t. Consider these facts....
• In 1999, the average consumer received 40 pieces of SPAM. By this year the total is expected to soar to 1,600 pieces.
• Current estimates are that 40% to 60% of all Internet traffic is SPAM.
• Nucleus Research attributed an average loss per employee per year of $1934 to a business due to spam.

In our own experience, we have been surprised that the percentage of SPAM email can be much greater than that above. In three Anti-SPAM installations we have done, two have shown that over 60% of all email was SPAM, whilst the other showed that a whopping 75% of all email was SPAM.

There are many products available to help combat SPAM, with each one giving various options and controls over configuration. The one that you install will depend on your environment and control requirements. For those that have a Lotus Notes Email System, we can highly recommend the use of SPAMSentinel. We have installed the software for a number of clients and it has shown great results.

In the meantime, here are four tips to help you avoid being targeted with SPAM.
• NEVER click the "Remove me from the list" link.
• Create an email account from a free service (Yahoo, or Hotmail) and use that account for instances when you must give an email address to a company. Never give your work address or private address to companies.
• When filling out an Internet form, look for the check box that will allow you to "OPT OUT" of email offers. If you do not opt out, you are giving a company permission to use and sell your email address to anyone.
• NEVER purchase anything through SPAM. You are only supporting their cause and encouraging them.

Monthly Tip
Restart May Be The Answer - How many times have you had an annoying problem that you just can't seem to fix? This may sound like a "cop-out", but more often than not, simply restarting the machine or device can fix a problem. There is quite often no explanation as to why a glitch or problem occurs, and no point wasting time and money trying to determine the cause - especially when it may be a one time occurrence.

PLEASE NOTE: Caution should be used when restarting any IT equipment, if you are unsure whether you should, ask your IT Provider for advice.

Spotlight
Maxtor OneTouch - Simply smarter storage with push-button backup. After setup, you just press the button and your files are backed up in one simple step. With sizes ranging up to 300 GB, there is ample room to store your videos, photos, graphics, music and more in one convenient location. It makes it possible to access your most important files faster and more easily. The drives feature a whisper-quiet 7200 RPM hard drive with 8 MB cache and come equipped with both FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces for easy connection. The Maxtor OneTouch is a good looking storage option that is available for both PC and Mac.