Security Sin 5 – “If I receive an email offer I always check it out – it could save me money!”

jjones | Guides | 26/11/2008 10:36am
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Experts say that every facet of real life is apparent on the internet, but the notion of online junk mail has far surpassed its offline equivalent. No-one can agree on how many spam emails are sent every day, but estimates range anywhere between 50 billion and 120 billion. Over the last few years spam has grown at such a rate that junk mail now represents over half of the world’s email traffic.

There are few people in the world who are untouched by spam, and the deluge of email costs businesses billions in wasted time and missed communications, with employees having to spend hours of their working week dealing with email. Not only that, the strain of spam on inboxes has the power to stretch the resources of servers and computers across the world.

Spam isn’t just a nuisance, though. It’s also a threat to the security of your home computer. 80% of the world’s spam is spread by criminal gangs through the use of botnets. This involves using a network of zombie PCs, which have been infected by viruses and spyware, to process the hundreds of thousands of emails. This poses a serious risk to users who receive spam, as emails may carry a payload of a virus or a link to one, in an attempt to ensnare your PC into their botnets.

Despite the dangers, a survey of Windows Vista magazine readers showed a worrying trend that highlights the importance of running spam filters and security software, such as PC Tools Internet Security. In our survey, over a quarter of our readers said they had opened spam emails, which poses a huge risk to data and PC security. What’s more, a further one in five clicked a link in a junk email.

What can you do?

Safeguarding yourself from spam is never easy, but there are things you can do to alleviate the problem. Like anything in life, prevention is better than cure, so not using your personal email to sign up for things like websites, newsletters and competitions will drastically reduce the likelihood of your receiving spam emails. Signing up for a webmail service such as Windows Live Hotmail is also a good way to filter out your spam from your legitimate mail.

Preventing spam may stave off the worst, but it’s impossible to stop it all. If you use any email client then you might find that spam eventually works its way into your inbox. There are plenty of spam email filters on the market, which work by examining the content of your emails and looking for buzz words that identify the email as spam, and use complex algorithms to send unwanted emails to a spam folder, in a bid to keep your main inbox clear of junk.

Sergei Shevchenko from PC Tools explains the way that spam filters work: “Spam filters employ complex statistical algorithms of classifying email by its content. They can also utilise image recognition algorithms to extract text from the graphic spam,” he said. “The spammers are always trying to evade spam filters by adding random syntax errors, introducing ‘noise’ to the graphic spam or simply switching to other languages. It’s a classic cat-and-mouse game.”

Reader rescue

Terry Pardy from Dorset contacted us for help clearing his inbox from spam. Terry’s problem was that he was inundated with spam emails, and in the five days leading up to our arrival he had received an overwhelming 845 spam messages. The main problem on Terry’s machine was that spam emails were seemingly indiscriminately being sent to both the spam folder and his inbox, and this was turning his email management into a nightmare.

“You gain all these email addresses, but the trouble is none of them seem to be free of spam. I get hundreds every day, for things like Viagra, pills, medication, and you know that they are all scams. Even if I actually wanted this stuff it wouldn’t turn up,” he said. “I really need help sorting this out, as you can’t win. Legitimate emails get caught up in the spam folder so you still have to go in there and sort it out. What’s more, spam emails are still getting into my inbox so I have to spend more time on that as well.”

Terry uses multiple email accounts, but it was his BT Internet account that was taking the brunt of the spamming onslaught. Often, spammers randomly target email providers’ common email addresses – if you look at the To line of a spam email, you will often find many more recipients on the list, many of which will have names and email addresses similar to yours – but the severity of Terry’s spam problem showed that there was more to it than a simple lottery. We asked Terry about his general computing interests and his email habits and this revealed there was a compelling reason for his spam deluge.

Apart from communicating with friends and family, one of Terry’s main uses for email is entering online competitions, and it was this activity that was opening him up to the torrent of spam. Companies often use the data from competitions to make money for themselves by selling on names and email addresses to other organisations. The sale of bulk email is lucrative for companies, so spammers can bombard ordinary people with advertisements, and once your email ends up bring sold, there is no limit to how many more times your email address will be passed on.

To help tackle his spam problem, we advised Terry to use a different email for his competition entries – perhaps setting up a Windows Live Hotmail account especially for that purpose. Doing this would help alleviate some of the pressure from his inbox, and as webmail applications have built-in spam filters, he would still retain control over his mailbox.

Terry also
installed PC Tools Internet Security 2.0, which is completely equipped to protect his PC from the dangers of spam. The suite includes a built-in spam filter, which uses complex algorithms to weed out spam emails from the rest of his inbox, and send junk mail directly to his spam folder.

Another way Terry can keep spam out of his inbox is by maintaining up-to-date and accurate address books, and allowing correspondence from legitimate companies such as lastminute.com newsletters, which as solicited mail, doesn’t count as spam. Once Terry’s regular contacts are in his address book he can increase the severity of his spam filters, which will make his inbox more secure in the future.

As well as helping Terry to get rid of spam, PC Tools Internet Security also contains Spyware Doctor and Antivirus, so if rogue spam does infiltrate his PC, the potentially dangerous payload of malware won’t compromise his security. By using a complete security package, the multiple dangers of spam can be avoided.

Five spam facts you didn’t know

1 As most spam is sent via botnets, 80% of the billions of unsolicited emails sent every day is from fewer than 200 spammers. As they control the rival botnets they have a monopoly over the business.

2 The first spam message was sent to 393 people in 1978 by Gary Thuerk using the ARPANET system, the predecessor of the internet. The message, which can be found at http://snipurl.com/4qqz7, advertised a lecture that was being held on the subject of early internet technology. It was met with outrage from officials.

3 According to research only one in 28 business emails are legitimate. This shows the huge strain being put on businesses by junk mail, and the time taken to sort though them.

4 In 2004 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the BBC that Microsoft founder Bill Gates receives four million emails a day, and most of them were spam. At the time Gates had an entire department devoted to keeping spam out of his inbox. Amazingly, they were successful – only a handful ever made it to his inbox. In the same speech Microsoft asserted that spam would be eradicated within two years.

5 Spam is an international business. It originates from all over the world, but the biggest offender is the US, then Asia, followed closely by Europe.

Win security software worth £50

To make our campaign a success and fight back against viruses, spyware and scams, we need your support. Pledge that your PC is free of the seven deadly security sins, and you could win a copy of PC Tools Internet Security Suite, worth £50. We have 70 copies to give away and we will be selecting 10 winners every issue until January. Entrants will be rolled over each month so the sooner you pledge the more chances you have of winning.

Go to www.securitysins.com to find out more.

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