With so much work to do and issues to face every day, the last thing businesses need to deal with is spam email. It’s surprising to find out that about 8.61 billion spam emails sent worldwide will come from the United States alone, according to Statista in 2021.
China follows this with 8.53 billion and the Russian Federation with 8.09 billion. The staggering number depicts a growing problem that requires IT solutions.
It can be different when dealing with spam messages in your account. After all, you can opt to disregard them and move on as if you didn’t know they were there.
But for businesses, yet, it’s a different story. If you run a business, you rely on people reaching out to you through various mediums, including emails. This is why you need to check all the correspondence to verify that all messages sent to the spam folder belong there.
Where do spam messages come from on the internet?
The top spam senders, including those in the US, come from many computers infected by hackers. Hackers infiltrate their systems by using spam-sending botnets, causing their computers to send out spam messages without their knowledge.
Since the owners aren’t even aware of what’s happening, they couldn’t do anything about it. Various botnets can affect your system and use it to spread spam emails without your consent.
It’s for this exact reason why email security is essential, especially when almost everyone has access to the internet these days. It’s frightening even to think that your computer is already part of a global spam operation.
But what if you shrug it off and do not bother adopting email security software even after becoming aware of it?
Well, you’ll be putting your business at risk this way. After all, it’s your resources and the integrity of your business that these spambots are targeting. Even a slight hunch about what’s happening or preventive action by including an email spam filter in your system will go a long way.
If you don’t do anything about the problem, you are contributing to the harm that might befall the email accounts that may have received your spam messages. This is like helping the hackers spread their malicious deeds.
How to prevent email spam
You don’t want to ruin your business because you spam. You have to take action to prevent it from reaching your business’s email in the first place. For this, you need to look for a reliable IT professional that specializes in IT security for businesses to check your email and implement a working and efficient spam filter.
In the meantime, you can also set up spam filters to prevent spam from reaching your business email and protect your system. Here are some tips you can consider:
1. Use a good antivirus to protect your system from any virus infection. You can use applications like Kasperky or Malwarebytes to eliminate any infection that might be present in any incoming email.
2. Be aware of all the transactions you perform using your email. Don’t get swayed into clicking on the links included in any unsolicited email.
3. If you receive an unsolicited email from someone you’re unfamiliar with, don’t even bother opening it. Delete it and clear your email’s trash folder right after.
4. Most email services have a Preview mode that lets you have a look at the contents of an email without even opening it. This is an excellent way to know if an email you receive is legitimate or spam.
5. Make separate email addresses for personal and business purposes. You also want to create backup email addresses that you will use when signing up for online survey forms or registration sites.
Using a spam filter properly
There’s more to spam filters than filtering any incoming email. For example, they can also filter any outgoing mail and even collaborate with email archiving platforms to minimize, if not prevent, customer data loss.
Spam filtering services work by matching any incoming email against the known threats in their database. Each spam filter has its database of records that includes threats detected throughout its operation. They even use pattern-based threat recognition to help recognize potential attackers aiming to infect systems with viruses and malware.
Spam filters work in various criteria depending on the type you have installed:
- Rule-based filter – This type uses rules customized by the spam filtering service to exclude messages with specific words in the body or subject or from particular senders.
- Blocklist filter – This one prevents emails from suspicious IP addresses by blocking such addresses in the first place.
- Header filter – This type scans emails for suspicious details, including spammy email addresses.
- Content filter – This one scans messages for certain words and parses the content.
What to keep in mind
Improving your email security isn’t about not opening spam emails; it’s also about setting up adjustable filters that you can customize depending on how your business email receives spam.
You can even use advanced email monitoring tools that use proven email security protocols such as DMARC, DKIM, and SPF. With these protocols in place, you’ll be able to verify the authenticity of any incoming email, encrypt messages sent between both parties, and receive suggestions whenever a suspicious email is detected.
They might cost you, but it’s a small price to pay if you consider the potential loss you’ll incur if you let spam flood your business email.
If you’re tired of dealing with email spam, we can help. Parried has a complete suite of cyber security solutions to prevent and eliminate spam. Book a free IT consultation to speak with one of our business cyber security specialists to learn more.
