Ultimate Defense Against Spam in 2009

With 2008 behind us, seasoned email administrators are battle hardened. The spam battles we fought over the last year have been many on several fronts. The spammers have attempted to attack our business and personal perimeters through email, voice mail, SMS text messages etc… They [the spammers] have used intimidation, scare tactics, human emotion and social habits to accomplish their various missions.

What have we learned from engaging in almost daily squirmishes with our spam foes?

If we first identify what spammers try to accomplish, then we can come up with a strategy to bolster our defenses.  So what is a spammer’s agenda? Different spammers have various goals. Let’s review some the main objectives.

• Sell products and receive affiliate commissions

• Acquire personal information for identity theft

• Breach computer network security to access corporate information

• Plant bot software for denial of service attacks

• Install viruses that bring computers to an abrupt halt

• Have people send money for fictious causes

• Access email address books just to send more spam and clog the Internet highway

These are some of the main objectives, but I’m sure you can come up with many more.  I encourage you to brainstorm with associates to come up with a complete list.  It will enhance your anti-spam strategy.

In the “Art of War” by Sun Tzu a key statement is “If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can come out of hundreds of battles without danger“.  What does this have to do with fighting spam?  It provides the answer to the ultimate defense against fighting spam.  Do you really know your enemy? Do you know yourself?  Have you given any  thought to why spammers appear to be ahead of email administrators at every turn? Why does it appear as though we can’t seem to win the spam war?

Those questions are all answered by asking the question “Where is the weakest fortification that enables spammers to achieve their mission?“.  Hold that thought for a minute.

Know Your Enemy
Spammers take time to learn all they can about what makes people perform certain actions. They take seminars on marketing. They exchange ideas within informal underground forums about human social interaction. Remember, spammers are running a business. They educate themselves on consumer buying habits. In other words, spammers integrate all aspects of the human psyche with technology tools.  These proceses are no different than those performed by legitimate advertising companies.

Know Yourself
As technologists, many times we get lost in the details of automated system deployment.  Technology clouds us from seeing the bigger picture. It’s easy to forget the nature of each business aspect of our email audience.  Executive assistants are in the office management business. Lawyers are in the legal business. Bankers are in the finance business. Plumbers are in the leaky faucet business. Human resource professionals are in the staffing business. The masses are not in the email business.  The only time most people care about email is when they cannot send or receive it.

So the common denominator for spammers and email administrators to achieve their mission is the human factor.  Spammers have been better able to leverage this variable than we have, as email administrators. This is the weakest front line link that answers the question above.

The Ultimate Defense Against Spam
The best email user is an educated email user. The email users are on the front line. If we bolster this fortification, spammers don’t stand a chance.

Consider Implementing Continuing Education Programs

• Publish a technology newsletter / blog with spam articles

• In addition to sending spam alerts to your technology buddies, send them to the email user community

• Ask Human Resources to sponsor some “lunch and learn” spam and email security workshops.  Provide non-technical topics. Speak in terms email users understand, with appropriate analogies.

• Use spam help desk requests to have a 3 minute mini seminar to educate that caller. Make it a goal to empower each person to become self sufficient.

Continuously educate, inform and transfer knowledge to email users. Over a period of time the spam bullies will move on to easier corporate prey, as your email user front line  maintains a solid fortification.