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Spam Filtering Cheat Sheet: 14 Ways to Reduce Spam

What Is Spam?

Spam is usually defined as irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the Internet, typically to a large number of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware and other annoyances. Spam — from unsolicited junk mail to dodgy emails with potentially malicious links — is annoying at its most harmless, but downright dangerous at its worst.

How Big Of a Problem is Email Spam?

Research by Spam Laws indicates that spam accounts for 45 percent of emails sent, or about 14.5 billion messages a day in the U.S. Globally, research suggests the figure could be as high as 73 percent. According to Spam Laws, scams and fraud comprise about 2.5% of all spam email, and phishing comprises 73% of that 2.5%, or 1.8% of all spam email.

What Are the Negative Effects of Spam?

Identity theft is a worrying potential by-product of spam, but even harmless spam (like advertising which accounts for the majority of spam emails) can reduce office productivity and clog up mail servers which in turn affects an organization’s bottom line. Spam Laws estimates spam will cost businesses up to $257-billion per year if it continues to grow at current rates.

How Can You Reduce Spam?

Anti-spam filters can help reduce spam, but spammers are wily, constantly coming up with new tricks. Speaking to NBC News on condition of anonymity, one spammer said that with just four computers and two modems he could transmit 10 million emails a day.

It is unlikely your inbox will ever be spam-free, but if you apply a multi-layered strategy, you can significantly reduce spam and lessen the chance of being hacked. Here are nine tips to keep you safe.

1. Junk the Junk

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*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from InfoSec Resources authored by Chris Sienko. Read the original post at: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/infosecResources/~3/ZkxdoMXiLCc/