We'll offer some solutions to this troublesome new phenomenon of e-mail junk mail.
Guests
Chris Bongaarts
Chris Bongaarts
Chris Bongaarts is a systems programmer for the Office of Information Technology at the University of Minnesota. He is part of the Internet Services group responsible for managing the University's central e-mail, directory, and authentication services. In October 2002, the group implemented a new spam-control system to cut down on the amount of junk e-mail received by users at the University.
Brian Hayden
Brian Hayden
Brian Hayden has worked for Academic and Distributed Computing Services at the University of Minnesota since 1997. He has spent the last three years concentrating on e-mail, both from user and administrative perspectives. He sold his computer a year ago to buy a guitar.
For Your Files
Chris Bongaarts talked about the role viruses play in creating spam: "They are sometimes used by spammers to open holes on [a person's] home computer so that the spammers can relay mail through the home computer . . . to disguise the true origin of it. So it's basically [that] the spammers are hacking into your computer at home to use it to send out more spam."
Chris also warned us about "phishing:" "It's becoming much more prevalent.It's basically, they send you e-mail and it looks like the Web page or an e-mail that's officially from some place popular, like E-Bay or your bank or PayPal, the online money transfer thing. What they do is they say, 'There's a problem with your account, log in here' (which isn't the actual outfit; it's these spammers' Web servers) and 'give us your log in name and password and we'll fix everything up for you.' But it's not them; you're giving your account information to someone else other than who you think you are."
Brian Hayden, a technical specialist at the University, said, "Be careful with your e-mail address. Spammers find addresses if left in public places like on a message board or on the Internet on somebody's guestbook on a home Web site. Things like that, your e-mail address, if it's just sitting there on the Web anybody can come by and get it. They even have special programs that crawl through and pick those out. A person doesn't even have to read it."
Brian also had some advice about spam filtering software. "There is software that you can purchase that says it will filter out spam. Realistically it's not; most of it is not terribly useful. The kind of functionality that it offers is included in most e-mail programs these days."
Filtering
Filtering programs look for specified things in other programs and then perform specific actions based on what they find. Some e-mail programs include filters that look for certain words, word patterns, or word frequencies in e-mail messages and delete them from your inbox. See whatis.com for details.
Phishing
When spammers send you e-mail that appears to be from a legitimate organization and ask for your account information such as your identification number and password. They then use this information to send computer viruses to others.
Spam
According to several online dictionaries, the term comes from a skit on the Monty Python's Flying Circus television show about Spam, the trademarked canned meat product. It now refers to unsolicited e-mail.