Data from the survey revealed that:

• Nearly half of those who have accessed spam (46%) have done so intentionally – to unsubscribe, out of curiosity, or out of interest in the products or services being offered.
• Four in ten (43%) say that they have opened an email that they suspected was spam.
• Among those who have opened a suspicious email, over half (57%) say  they have done so because they weren’t sure it was spam and one third (33%) say they have done so by accident.
• 84% were aware of the concept of bots. Yet, most think that they are immune from these viruses, with only a third saying they consider it likely that they could get a bot on their computer.

Spammers have mechanisms which allow them to track whether their emails are accessed or not. Opening or even unsubscribing from spam messages further invites them to send even more spam. Furthermore, Spam messages these days are not only vehicles to solicit or sell goods and services of dubious source and value, but are increasingly being used as vectors to spread malicious software or malware. Clicking on a link, opening an attachment, or just viewing it can potentially open users’ computers to vulnerabilities in the operating system or installed applications. This in turn can turn compromised systems into “bots”, or unwitting accomplices in spreading more spam or malware.

It pays to be aware of this next time you receive suspicious email – and make sure that your employees understand the risks as well. Sometimes even your antivirus software isn’t enough to protect you – so please ask us about our Managed Security Services and how we can help you not only fight spam but prevent it from reaching your Inbox in the first place.

Related articles:

• Survey: Millions of users open spam emails, click on links (zdnet.com)
• Twitter spam drops to under 1 percent (networkworld.com)

‎Brazil-originated spam levels topping 13% says Panda Security (infosecurity.com)

Read more

Of course these child hood secret messages only work in the mind of a child, but not the corporate shield of real business. For your communications between your employees, your partners or your clients you need to ensure that each email message that needs to be secure, is secure.

• Read more at Small Biz IT…

If you’ve never experienced the feeling of drowning in emails, then you are an exception. If this has never happened to you, publish your email address in a couple of sites where spambots get emails for spamming from and you will see how it feels to get dozens of junk emails a day. However, even if you are not drowning in spam, you still can receive many other unwanted messages a day, and soon you will discover that if you don’t know how to manage your inbox, the information overflow can be enormous. Here are some tips on how to manage your inbox effectively:

• Create separate folders for separate projects/people. One of the ways to deal effectively with information overflow is to separate the different streams of information. If you keep all your messages in your Inbox folder, soon it will contain thousands of messages, and it will be more difficult to find the message you need. You can create separate folders for different projects/people and file the emails into these folders.
• Create rules. Rules are one more way to optimize the flow of emails. Different email programs have different rules available, so you may want to check with your particular program to see which it offers. Almost always you can at least set rules for automatically moving/copying messages to/from a certain person to a separate folder.
• Use new message alerts. Very often you can configure alerts for new messages. If your email program does not have this feature enabled by default, you should consider enabling it.
• Manage spam filters. Spam filters are also part of inbox management, and depending on the amount of spam you receive, managing spam filters could take a lot of time. However, one of the important issues you must have in mind is that if your spam filters are not properly set, they could cut legitimate messages as well. So, set your spam filters with care.
• Use flags. Flags are a really useful way to separate a message from the rest. As with many of the other advanced inbox tricks, different email clients offer different flag systems, but almost any program offers flags for marking incoming messages as important, urgent, etc. If you have never used flagging, you will be surprised how easy and effective it is.

There are many more tips, all of which are good to know. Actually, we are just scratching the surface and we could add more ways to optimize your inbox use! But if you apply even the tips above, you will experience significant improvement in terms of effective email use. Isn’t it time you took charge of you email?

Email is perhaps the most important productivity tool available – yet its potential as a time waster is well known. It’s essential that you master this critical business tool and make it work of you.

Email is one of the most indispensable collaboration tools for any business. Email has become such an integral part of our lives that we can hardly imagine life without it. Using email is not difficult. Using it effectively, though, is not easy.
Everybody has experienced spam and how unwanted emails clutter up our inbox. Likewise, many of us have overlooked an important message that has gotten lost in an overflowing inbox. However, these are not the only cases when people are using email ineffectively. Here are some tips that will help you use email more effectively:

• Keep several email accounts. Having only one account means that generally you will be receiving dozens of messages a day, much of which is spam or is otherwise unwanted or unimportant. But even if your spam filters are working properly, you still should have several accounts. For instance, you should have a business company domain and be careful of using this to register or subscribe to services, and you should have another account for personal use with Gmail, Yahoo, MSN or another similar email service.
• Answer emails quickly. Good communication etiquette requires that you don’t keep people waiting for your reply. While you can’t be expected to answer emails immediately (unless it is an urgent matter, but then you’re better off using the phone), answering within a reasonable timeframe –one business day or less – is acceptable and increasingly expected.
• Manage your inbox. Even if you have several accounts and each of them is for different kinds of emails, your inboxes still will get cluttered. Managing your inbox effectively is one of the greatest improvements you can make in email use, so you may want to check this article on using email rules for advanced tips on effective inbox use.
• Use Folders. There are many emails that you want to keep after you have read them. Create a system of folders that makes sense to you so that after you’ve read and responded to an email you can move it out of your Inbox where it will distract you, to a folder where you can find it later if necessary.
• Distribution lists rules. Spam wouldn’t exist if there were no people who sent it. So, give your contribution to having a world with less spam and do not send unsolicited mails in bulk. Make sure that you are sending your emails only to people who want to receive them. Even better, check that you comply with the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
• Do virus checks. Actually, the place for this tip is not near the bottom of the list — but let’s hope that your corporate security policy takes care of this and that you are not solely responsible for protecting your email against viruses and other malware. It might sound obvious that you should do virus checks, but even though email is a primary channel for virus distribution, many people still forget about virus checks. Don’t be one of them.
• Use advanced email tools. Going beyond the basics is always a challenge and as your experience with email grows, you will discover that it can offer much more than just sending and receiving emails. For instance, many email programs have a calendar function, which you could also use to improve your scheduling and collaboration within your team. Or saving emails that you need to act on later as a Task with a reminder so you can move it out of your Inbox.

Using email is simple, yet in some ways difficult. The more you learn, the more questions you have. However, it’s a business fact of life today that you can’t live without email and you need to master it.