How to Fight Spam Strategically - 'ZIFFPAGE TITLEManaging People With Policies ' (
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The first step has little to do with technology. Its a people problem.
At its most basic, e-mail is simply a communication between a sender and a receiver.
If the IT department has any hope of fixing the spam problem, it has to focus
first on the receiver. Your companys e-mail use policies need to be crystal
clear, defining the kinds of communications allowed for every position in the
organization. If you dont want administrative assistants to be e-mailing their
mothers all the time, or salespeople to forward every dumb joke they receive
to all 500 of their pals in the company, then make sure they know its against
the rules.
Your corporate culture will determine how far those policies can go in strictly
mandating e-mail use. Financial-services organizations often have locked-down
standards that give users little wiggle room, while universities are constrained
by very specific—and very liberal— notions on the part of users about
how broadly their rights are defined.
Train users in whats acceptable in terms of internal and external communications.
Some companies workers regularly copy everyone on every e-mail they send, creating
dozens of long message threads that qualify in some recipients minds as "unsolicited
bulk e-mail." Employees should also learn to reduce the frequency with which
they provide their e-mail addresses to unfamiliar Web sites, a habit that virtually
guarantees their inclusion on spam lists.
Your Webmasters should also be involved. Brightmail CTO Ken Schneider says e-mail
addresses listed on HTML pages such as your companys "contact us" page are
the single largest source of target addresses for spammers. Marketers can simply
point a software "spider" to look for e-mail addresses on your site, then drop
them into spam lists. Remove text e-mail addresses wherever possible, and consider
using digital GIF images to confuse the spiders.
Ultimately, well-designed and managed e-mail policies can significantly reduce
the amount of spam targeting your users, as well as increase overall productivity
by promoting more effective internal communications—whether users initially
want to help or not. "You have to protect them from themselves as best you can,"
says Julian Field, teaching systems manager in electronics and computer science
at the University of Southampton in Southampton, England.
Ask Your Human Resources Department Chief:
Can we review our e-mail policy together, and focus on both interpersonal and
technological realities?
Ask Your CTO:
Where are our employees e-mail addresses most vulnerable on the Net?
Tell Your Users:
We need your help in reducing the risk of spam to the organization.
Next Page: Building on top of existing infrastructure.
