Back in 1988 university student Robert Norris released an internet worm which was able to exploit vulnerabilities in the UNIX operating system. It is estimated his worm infected as much as 10% of the internet back then.

Today, some 10 years later, Internet Security Company – Sophos – estimate an unbelievable 97% of all business emails sent in 2008 were spam. Now that is a lot of spam! You can just imagine the costs for businesses getting infected from spam and the time spent for staff going through and deleting spam emails.

Some basic tips on how you can avoid spam

Having an up to date email hosting solution will filter out most spam emails containing malwares, phishing links, hijack attempts or virus infected attachments. However it is always good to know some basic tips on how you can protect yourself against those spam emails which eventually do come through and land in your inbox. A good rule of thumb when it comes to suspicions looking emails is to adapt to the wild-west approach, which is to shoot first and ask questions later.

Never open spam emails or email attachments. Often spam emails contain what is called a web beacon, this is a tracking object which enables spammers to find out which email addresses have received and opened the spam message. Opening word or PDF attachments can infect your computer in seconds with nasty viruses, as executable files are often hidden within.

Never ever reply to a spam email. Make this your mission because If you do reply, even if it’s just requesting to have your email address removed, then you are in fact confirming that your email address is working, your email address is valid and the spam was successfully delivered to your inbox. Replying to a spam email gives the spammer a green-light to your email address is not filtered and deleted by a spam filter.

Do not click on unusual looking hyperlinks. Never ever click on the links in spam messages; this also applies to unsubscribe links. Unsubscribe links often have a code in it which identifies the email address of the receiver and confirms that the spam has been delivered and that you responded.

Never respond to requests to validate or confirm account details, such as bank or credit card details, eBay or PayPal account verification as they usually contain fake links to phishing web sites. If you are unsure if a request for personal information from a company is real then contact the company directly using the contact details from their official website.

Get a step ahead of spam with a good email host provider

Getting minimum amount of spam emails to your inbox is what a reliable email hosting solution is there for. Around 99% of spam emails gets deleted on the way and will never end up in your inbox. Trusted email hosting providers, for example Rackspace, FastHost, HostWay, always have the latest spam and virus protection running on their services, as new threats come and go and the security updates, patches and definitions have to adapt accordingly. Trusted providers will offer the latest anti-spam and anti-virus security technologies; supported 24/7/365 by live teams of technicians.

Rackspace for example guarantees its customers to get a “premium spam filtering and antivirus solution as standard at no extra charge, eliminating 99% of unwanted email before it ever reaches your inbox. The solution utilises proprietary detection systems, four virus scanning engines, and over 60 filtering techniques, plus front wave protection to rid inbound and outbound email of spam, worms, viruses and other protocol-based vulnerabilities”.

Further reading

For more information on Rackspace UK visit their section on Email Hosting to find out more about their services. For information on email spam then visit this Wikipedia Article. If you are looking for more information on email hosting then Host Review has several useful guides you can read.